Finding her wicked roots
by Eowyn-Faith
Summary: This story is the sequel to CHILD OF THE WICKED. Arwen learns the truth about her parents and uncovers her parents memories and secrets.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All credits f****or WICKED go to Gregory Maguire and Stephen Schwartz. I own the plot, nothing else. The lullaby is from the Porgy and Bess musical written by Gershwin, it's one of the first musicals I have ever seen and I still love this song. **

**This story is the sequel to **CHILD OF THE WICKED**. I hope all of you enjoy this fanfic as much as you have enjoyed the first story.**

**I had a lot of problems finding the right title for the sequel, I guess I changed it four or five times, but now I am sure that I found the right one. **

**Liora is Hebrew and means My Light. Sahar is Hebrew and means Moon. **

**Thanks to BelieveTheWarIsOver for betareading my fanfics, you are doing a great job. THANK YOU!**

**FINDING HER WICKED ROOTS**

**Prologue**

_Sunlight streamed through the window, lighting the room. It was a small room high up in a tower of a castle._

_A young, green woman was rocking a baby to sleep, singing a soft lullaby: _

"_Summertime, and the living is easy. Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high. Your daddy's rich, and your ma is good looking. So hush little baby, don't you cry. One of these mornings, you're gonna rise up singing. You're gonna spread your wings and take the sky. But till that morning, there is nothing can harm you with your daddy and mommy standing by."_

Again Arwen awoke from a restless sleep. She had been dreaming for weeks now about this singing green woman, probably her mother. She didn't know if there had ever been another green woman in Oz, maybe her mother had been the only green one. She didn't know. Arwen still had a lot of questions about her heritage. Questions not even her aunt Glinda could answer. With her parents being dead, she would never know the answers. There were moments in her life when she longed for her parents still be alive. She longed to know the people who she had never met but defined who she was. She was Arwen Liora Tiggular, daughter of Elphaba Thropp and Fiyero Tiggular, child of the wicked.

Four years had gone by since her graduation from Shiz, four years since she found out the truth of her parentage. But in these four years Arwen never went to search for any information about her parents, about how they lived, about their earlier years in life. Arwen was now the same age her mother had been when she had died. Maybe now was the right time to get the answers for her unvoiced questions. Arwen needed to know more than the names of her parents.

She would start with a trip to her grandparents, the King and the Queen of the Vinkus. They had never known that their son had fathered a child before he died. Arwen was unsure if her aunt Glinda had wrote them a letter, telling them the truth about the girl she had raised, telling them that she was raising their only grandchild.

But Arwen hadn't been brave enough to pick up a pen and write to them. What would they say when they learned that their only grandchild was the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West? Arwen couldn't imagine how she would react if someone told her something like that. No. She knew how she would feel. After all, she had learned that she was the daughter of the Wicked Witch years ago. First she had been shocked, doubted herself and everything she had believed in. She, who had always dreamt to be like her aunt Glinda, to bring a change to Oz, was the daughter of the greatest enemy that had ever lived in Oz. But by now she had learned part of the real truth, that not her mother, but the Wizard and Morrible had been the evil ones.

The next day Arwen went to visit her aunt. She needed to talk to her first. Maybe her aunt Glinda could tell her a bit more about Elphaba and Fiyero, mom and dad. Part of Arwen was afraid to face her grandparents. There was no easy way explaining the truth to them.

"Something is bothering you, Arwen," Glinda said.

"I have dreams."

"Dreams? We all dream, nothing that should be bothering you."

"I dream of a green woman, probably my mother. Aunt Glinda, please, I need to know more about my parents."

Glinda sighed. During the last four years Arwen had come to her and had asked a lot of questions about Elphaba and Fiyero. Glinda had tried to tell her all she knew about them, but Elphaba and Fiyero had never been a couple back at Shiz, they had been friends, her friends. Glinda had never known that they had been in love until Fiyero had left her the day she announced her engagement. Shortly after this he had died. And Elphaba, she had died a year after Fiyero, leaving Glinda to raise the child of her best friends.

"I am not sure what else I could tell you. But I have some of your mother's belongings. I am sure she wanted you to have them."

Glinda stood up and walked over to an ancient chest. Years ago she had stored the reminders of her friendship with Elphaba in the chest. Now it was time to uncover those memories.

"What kind of belongings?"

"Her diaries, for one."

"Diaries?"

Glinda nodded. Back in Shiz she had always watched her friend write in her diary but never, even after her death, had she read a single word Elphaba had written. For her, Elphaba's thoughts were private. No one should ever read them. But Arwen was an expection: she was Elphaba's daughter. She needed to know things about her mother, things Glinda could never tell her. Only Elphaba's words, the ones she had written down could maybe answer Arwen's questions. If not, Arwen could still make a trip to her grandparents. The only family Arwen had left were Liora and Sahar Tiggular.


	2. Chapter 2

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **greengirl16, Elphiethegood **and **TillItryIllneverknow**.

Real life keeps us, my betareader and myself, busy right now but I hope to update soon again. Can't make any promises.

**Chapter 1**

In the evening, Arwen sat down and started to read one of her mothers diaries. Maybe the books her aunt had given her could supply the answers she longed for. Answers to questions like how her parents fell in love. She opened one of the books on a random page.

_May, 27__th_

_Today Doctor Dillamond was arrested. It all started like any other day at Shiz. Everything was how it always had been, down to the other students calling me names like artichoke or green freak. By now I am used to it. Why should it bother me anymore? I can't change who I am, I can't change that I am green. But I hope that if I ever have a child, he or she won't inherit my curse, the curse of having green skin. But on the other hand, who would ever love me? I only bring death and destruction to the ones I love. My mother died because I was born green. My father hates me because I am responsible for my sister sitting in a wheelchair. No one has ever accepted me, not even my own family. Why should other people be any different? But he, Doctor Dillamond, had been different. He was a Goat. He knew what it meant to be different and now he is gone._

_And the new professor, I don't know how to describe him. He did something horrible by showing us a Lion cub in a cage. Telling us it was for the Lion's own good. But being imprisoned, robbed of your ability to speak, is not for anyone's own good. I knew that I had to do something against the injustice. I don't know how but somehow the whole class, except for the Vinkus boy, was in some kind of trance, frozen in place. I don't know, they just seemed crazy to me and it had all been my doing. It was my magic acting up, being out of control again. But in the end we, meaning Fiyero and me, could save the Lion. He won't suffer a life in silence, he will be able to speak. Fiyero grabbed the cage and ran out of the class. We set the Lion free. We did good._

_For the first time there was someone who helped me, someone who was nice. I would have never thought that Fiyero, with his dancing-through-life attitude, would care for a Lion or anyone else. But Fiyero helped the Lion and he helped me. Maybe I shouldn't have been prejudiced towards him. After all. he's not afraid of my green skin. Everyone else, even my own family, hates me. They look at me with such distaste but he was different. He was nice. I feel confused. He is Galinda's friend, he shouldn't be nice towards me. But for today, for just a moment, as long as he was with me, I felt as if I had another friend. As if someone else cared for me. But I could and would never be the one he would love. I am not pretty, I am green. So there is no use thinking that he would be any different. Except maybe, from time to time, I could allow myself to think about the famous what-if. What if I wasn't green? What if he loved me? _

Arwen closed the book. She had never imagined that her mother was insecure. She had imagined a strong young woman, firm in her beliefs. Yes, she knew that being green when everyone else wasn't couldn't have been easy. But that her mother had been shunned like she was an abnormality, mother-nature's sick joke, made Arwen feel sorry for the woman she never knew.

And what her mother had wrote about her father, Fiyero the Vinkus boy with his dancing-through-life attitude. Her mother made it sound like her father was a shallow young man.

Part of Arwen had always imagined that her parents had been madly in love from the first time they had met. But on the other hand she knew that her father, Fiyero Tiggular, had been the fiancé of her aunt Glinda and had run away with her mother on the day of his engagement.

Arwen picked up another book. Only half of the pages were filled with her mother's spidery handwriting. It must have been her mother's last diary, the last entry was written shortly before she had died.

_June 14__th_

_Soon everything will be over and the Wicked Witch of the West will only be a memory, a story that you tell your children to scare them. _

_And I will be again reunited with Fiyero. Oh Fiyero, I can't say how much I miss you. Everytime I look at our daughter I see you, I remember you, your touch and the night she was conceived. _

_I can't wait until we will be together forever my Yero. I long to be with you again. I have already planned what will happen to our little daughter. Your parents are going to raise her. I wrote them a letter, explaining that Oz can't have peace until I am dead. And maybe it is for the best. When I am dead, Oz will have one less of a problem and our child can grow up to have a better life. No one will know that she is the child of the wicked. _

She closed the book. Arwen couldn't continue reading what else her mother had wrote only days before she had died.

She had just learned that her mother had longed for her death. Part of Arwen had always imagined that her mother had died fighting for her life. But what she had read in the diary sounded more like her mother had wanted to die, not thinking about what would happen to her daughter, only wanting to be together with the man she loved. It sounded selfish.

What she had read in the books didn't give her any real answers. In fact, now she had more questions then ever. And tomorrow she would start looking for the answers she needed.

But for tonight she was tired. She was tired of all the lies she still heard about her parents. She was tired of not knowing who she really was.

And that night, for the first time since her dreams had started, Arwen had another dream about an elderly green woman and a scarecrow.


	3. Chapter 3

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **greengirl16, Juelz Rox **and **TillItryIllneverknow**.

**Chapter 2**

When she woke up the next morning after another restless sleep, Arwen knew what she had to do, where she had to go. She knew that she needed to find her roots, the place where she really belonged. The Emerald City was a wonderful place but somehow she had always felt as if she never fit in. Her aunt Glinda loved her dearly but it could never replace a mother's love.

Kiamo Ko would be her first stop on her journey to discover her roots. Kiamo Ko was the place where her mother had died. She needed to see for herself where it happened, where she had lost her mother.

Arwen knew that her father had died in Nest Harding, where her aunt Nessarose had lived and died too. She would travel to Nest Harding, too, and at last to her grandparents in the Vinkus.

Arwen needed to see for herself the places that were important in the lives of her deceased parents. Maybe she would find closure there and the dreams, which grew more disturbing now with each day, would stop.

It would be a four days journey, enough time to read the books if she was brave enough to open them again. She was unsure what she would read, what other secrets about her mother she would discover. She already knew that her mother was misunderstood and powerful.

Now, as she stood at the train station, waiting to board the train that would bring her to the first stop of her journey, Arwen asked herself once again what the hell she was doing. A small voice inside her answered that she was going to find her roots. Where were her roots? With her grandparents? Or at Kiamo Ko? Would she finally feel at peace there?

There was only one way to find out. She had to get there and find out for herself.

Glinda had brought her to the train station to say goodbye and wish her good luck for her trip down memory-lane. Glinda knew that Arwen had always felt as if she never fit in, like part of her was missing. As she watched the girl grow up, Glinda saw her become the young woman Elphaba had been, firm in her beliefs and unsure in her feelings.

"Are you sure that this is the right thing to do?" Glinda asked her worriedly.

"I have to find the answers to questions no one can answer for me. The only ones who could have are dead. Aunt Glinda, I need to discover my roots, I need to see the places and people that played important roles in the lives of my parents," Arwen said, explaining her reasoning.

"But why Kiamo Ko first?"

"It's the place where everything came to an end. Why shouldn't I start at the end?"

Glinda smiled at Arwen. Elphaba would have given the same answer. And come to think of it, Arwen looked more and more like her mother each day.

Arwen wore a long dark gray skirt that reached right above her ankles, her ruby slippers and dark gray stockings. She sported a white blouse that tied off at her elbows, her black cloak lay over her arm and her black hair was pulled back in a bun. Arwen wasn't one to wear frilly dresses.

"I have something for you, my little one," Glinda said and held out a black, pointed hat towards Arwen as a parting-gift.

"A hat?"

"It belonged to your mother. The first present I ever gave her," Glinda explained.

One day Glinda would tell Arwen the full story of her friendship with Elphaba. Arwen only knew that their friendship had started after they had overcome their dislike for each other. Glinda wasn't sure if she had already learned the truth from her mother's diaries. If not she would tell her when she returned.

"Thank you."

Arwen took the hat and placed it on her head. For a moment Glinda felt as if Elphaba was standing in front of her, ready to board the train that would bring the two of them to the Emerald City. It had been long ago when they had been off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of OZ. After that fateful day, more then 25 years ago, their lives had been changed forever. She became Glinda the Good and Elphaba had been known as the Wicked Witch of the West since then.

But it wasn't Elphaba, it was her daughter Arwen, the girl she had raised and loved as her own. Glinda knew that she had made good on her promise to Elphaba.

And before they could say anything else, it was time for Arwen to board the train.

"It's time, you should go."

Arwen nodded before picking up her knapsack and suitcase and stepping on the train. She didn't turn around to look at her aunt. If she did, she might have turned around, her courage fleeing. Arwen couldn't risk it. She needed to go, she needed to see those places.

Glinda watched the train depart and remained on the platform when it was already long gone and out of sight.

"Ozspeed little Arwen, I hope you find what you are looking for, " she said.


	4. Chapter 4

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **greengirl16, musicfan1207, BreathOfMidnightAir, Juelz Rox **and **TillItryIllneverknow**.

**Chapter 3**

During her journey Arwen had a lot of time to pick up her mother's diary again. She knew she should start at the beginning but, again, out of curiosity she opened one of the books on a random page.

_June, 18__th_

_Two days ago my life went horrible wrong. No, make it three days._

_After visiting my sister Nessa, whom I tried to help, everything went wrong. I killed them. Maybe not intentionally, but with my good deeds, my spells. I killed Nessa, Boq and Fiyero._

_I only wanted to do good and give Nessa the ability to walk. She thanked me, my good deed, in a very horrible way. Nessa was angry with Boq. She wanted him to love her but you can't force love._

_I should have known that this cursed book, the Grimmerie, only brings evil. I should have known that there is no spell in this book that does good._

_When Boq told my sister that he was in love with Glinda, and had always loved Glinda, I was shocked. I knew that he was always been smitten with Glinda, but that he loved her? I would have never imagined. _

_Nessa grabbed the Grimmerie and started to chant a spell, one about loosing your heart. But she didn't understand anything else about the spell. She even said the words wrong. I couldn't stop her and couldn't undo the damage she had caused. She made him loose his heart forever. He would die without a heart. Was this Nessa's intention? If she couldn't have him and his love, no one should? What could I have done to save him? Nothing! I did the next best thing and searched for a spell to keep him from dying but I turned him into a tin man by doing so. And my dear little sister, she accused me of being responsible for what happened to Boq. I only wanted to save him! I only wanted to do good!_

_I mustn't have been in my right mind because the next thing I did was travel to the Emerald City to see the Wizard again. Another disaster! It was the night of Glinda's engagment-party. She got engaged to Fiyero. Back at Shiz she had told me that she would marry Fiyero one day. The good girl gets the prince. It's always like this in fairytales but our life, my life, was never a fairytale._

_He, the Wizard, wanted me to join him. At first it seemed like a wonderful idea. Finally I could come out of hiding. No one would look for me anymore. I wouldn't be called the enemy of Oz anymore. But then, when I saw Doctor Dillamond, I realized that we have nothing in common. I am nothing like him and I never will be. I promise that I will fight against the Wizard until one of us is dead! _

Arwen knew about Doctor Dillamond. Aunt Glinda had told her that he had been her mother's favourite professor back at Shiz. He understood her thirst for knowledge, given her academic challenges and encouraged her mother to ask questions, even unwanted ones. He had been the main reason her mother had started fighting the Wizard, fighting for Animal rights. Her beliefs had made her mother the outcast and she could only imagine how alone her mother must have felt.

But there was more written on this date and Arwen continued to read, trying to uncover the mystery that was her mother.

_Oh how I wish to die, to be reunited with my Fiyero again. He died two days ago, saving me. We spent the most wonderful night of my life together. I had never imagined that anyone could make me feel like this, like I am special, beautiful and loved. _

_But I should have known that I was never meant to have something good in my life for long. When I learned that my sister was in danger, I had to try and save her. She is, no, was my baby-sister. I had to help her, save her, but I had been to late. She was killed, crushed by a flying house. Worst of all, I know who is responsible for her death: our wonderful Wizard and his press secretary. _

_I am sure Glinda told them to use Nessa to try and lure me into a trap. Oh, and a trap it was. I would be dead by now if it wasn't for Fiyero. He came to my rescue and died saving me. I tried to save him. I had been looking for a spell in the Grimmerie, but this time there was no spell, no spell to help him, no spell to bring back the one I love. I can only long for him, to be with him, be in his arms again. And that I will, one day, I hope soon._

Arwen set the book down to wipe away the tears that were running down her cheeks.

Her mother had been deeply, madly in love with her father, who had died saving them. That was true love. Arwen wished that somehow she would find someone who loved her like her father had loved her mother but she was unsure if she ever would. Who would love her, the child of the wicked?

Would she end up like her parents? Dying young and alone? Her parents died with only a year between them, even sharing the same dying day, June 16th. Romantic. She still remembered what her aunt Glinda had said about her father's death. She had witnessed the Gale Force torturing her father, leaving him to die nailed on a pole on a cornfield. A while ago she had learned her fathers last words before he had died: _"Fae, I love you. We will see each other again. Death won't be able to keep us apart."_

Arwen longed for something like this, for the love she imagined her parents had. But before she could let herself fall in love she had to discover her roots. She was the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West and the crown prince of the Arjiki tribe.

Did she have her mother's magical talent? Her thirst for academic knowledge? Or was she more like her father with his dancing through life attitude?

Arwen was told by her aunt that she had her father's smile, her mother's dark hair and his shining blue eyes. She even had her mother's sense of style or more the lack of. Arwen preferred frocks instead of frilly dresses. She loved the darker colors instead of pink or light blue.

Arwen would find out more about her parents during her journey, she hoped. But what good were books and memories when she couldn't have the real one, when she couldn't have her parents back.

Arwen closed her eyes, trying to prevent tears of frustration from spilling over. At least there wasn't anyone to witness her breakdown, the only blessing.

Suddenly Arwen's train of thoughts was interrupted as the compartment door slid open.

"Finally a free compartment," someone said as he walked inside. It was a young man with gray eyes and blonde hair.

Arwen quickly wiped her eyes and turned away, looking out of the window and watching the rain. She loved the rain. It had raining the day she had been born. It had been raining all of last week and it hadn't stopped yet. But she didn't care. It fit her mood.

"I am Taye Notaro from Gillikin," he introduced himself.

"Arwen."

Arwen didn't look at him. She was still gazing outside but she had stopped crying.

"Arwen?"

"Just Arwen."

"So, just Arwen, do you want to tell me what got you upset?"

Arwen turned around to look at him. She wasn't crying anymore, but streaks of tears could be seen along her cheeks.

"No."

"Normally, when I am upset, I tell someone and it helps me feel better."

Arwen took a deep breath. "I don't want to talk about it," she repeated.

"Then tell me, where are you going?"

"Kiamo Ko."

"The Winkie castle where the Wicked Witch died?"

This guy, Taye, was getting on her nerves. How dare he call her father a Winkie?

Arwen's expression was unreadable. Unlike other people, whose every emotion was readable to anyone with sight, Arwen had long ago perfected a perfectly blank face.

"Yes, the castle which belongs to the royal family of the Vinkus, where the Wicked Witch of the West was melted. I want to see it."

"There is nothing there."

"There is something for me to see, but you wouldn't understand."

"Try me," he challenged her but Arwen simply shook her head. He wouldn't understand. No one would.


	5. Chapter 5

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular **and **TillItryIllneverknow**.

**Chapter 4**

Everyone walking by their compartment could see the odd couple, the bookish woman and the careless, debonair man.

Arwen was asleep, her head leaning against the window, dreaming. She was having a nightmare. Not all the dreams she had about her parents were happy dreams and memories. Sometimes she had what she called sad memories. Arwen had never talked with her aunt or anyone else but sometimes she believed that part of her mother lived in her, that sometimes her dreams were not dreams but memories her mother had, that she relived moments in the life of her mother, like right now.

_She was flying, faster as she had ever been. Today__, flying was not about enjoying the feeling or defying gravity. Today she was a woman on a mission. Her mission was to save Fiyero. _

_She needed to get to safety soon. They would be following her. She could already hear them in the distance. "Kill the Witch!" "One is dead and the other will be soon too." "Free OZ!" "Wickedness has to be destroyed!"_

_They were celebrating Nessa's death, killing another person – her beloved Fiyero. She had to stop it. She had to find a way to save him. She had to, even if it was the last thing she did. She couldn't let him die too. Elphaba knew that she had somehow to found a way to save her beloved. Nothing else mattered right now. Only saving him. _

_Finally, Kiamo Ko appeared. Finally her safe haven. Fiyero's castle. Now it would only be a matter of minutes. Yes, she had to believe that she could save him. She only had to believe that she could. _

_She ran the last few steps upwards, towards the highest tower of Kiamo Ko, and as she looked through the book, searching for a spell, the weather outside changed again, another storm coming. _

_But she never noticed, already engrossed in the book, mumbling, chanting word after word, there had to be the right words somewhere: "Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen. Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen. Let his flesh not be torn let his blood leave no stain, will they beat him, let him feel no pain. Let his bones never break and however they try to destroy him, let him never die, let him never die! __Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen. Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka . . . eleka."_

_Frustrated__, she closed the books, stopping her chanting. She didn't even know what she had been saying, if it was the right spell, if there was even a spell in the book that would save Fiyero._

"_I can't do good. Everytime I try to do good it ends in a disaster. All right, enough, so be it! So be it then. Let all of OZ be agreed. I'm wicked through and through. __If the Ozians want a Wicked Witch then they will get their wish. I will be their Wicked Witch!" she laughed madly. It was more of a cackle then a laugh._

_It was the moment the Wicked Witch of the West was born._

The train ride went uneventful for Taye, Arwen and the other occupants of the train until a scream broke the peaceful silence. Taye was jerked awake seconds after the first scream. Arwen was still sleeping; tossing and turning on her seat, sweat forming on her forehead when suddenly she jolted awake with another scream.

"What happened? I heard a scream," she said, looking worriedly at Taye.

"You screamed."

Arwen was silent. Taye, who had been by her side the moment she had first screamed, couldn't help noticing that Arwen's hand trembled slightly as she pushed some hair that had come loose from the strict bun away from her eyes

"Just a nightmare," Arwen lied. But it wasn't really a lie, only telling a half truth.

"Are you sure?"

"I have them for a while. Sometimes I wake up screaming. Nothing I am not used too," Arwen told him.

Suddenly, she had this funny feeling again. She felt dazed. Arwen knew what was coming next. She had seen it several times, experienced it quiet a few times after a nightmare, or was it a vision, she didn't know. Arwen felt weak and sick. All she could hear was the blood pounding in her ears and her own breathing. Then there was this voice again, a high-pitched voice. Someone was screaming. Then everything went black.

When she opened her eyes the next time, she was lying down on the bench she had been sitting on.

"You okay?" Taye reached out and placed a hand on her forehead.

Arwen nodded weakly.

"You're really clammy. And you passed out," he continued.

"Again?" Arwen asked.

"This had happend before too?"

How could she explain that she relived moments of her mother's life without telling him who her mother was? There was no way to explain, not without revealing her identity. And afterall, he shouldn't even care for her. He existed in ignorance; in a world free from the bitterness she tasted each morning. Half of her hated him for it, because he could be himself and she had to hide her identity. She couldn't step in front of a crowd and announce that her mother was the Wicked Witch of the West.

"Leave me alone," Arwen said instead and tried to sit up.

"Easy there. You shouldn't get up, not now. Get some more rest."

"I can't."

Taye reached his hand out and brushed some hair out of her face. Normally he wouldn't have looked twice her way. She wasn't the type of girl he spent his time with. She wasn't one of those girls in frilly dresses. She was a bookworm. But there was something about her, he couldn't say what it was, that had him enthralled, he just didn't know what.

As he touched her, he felt some kind of electric jolt. Both felt it. Wide-eyed, Arwen stared at him.

She had never felt anything like that when anyone had touched her. It was like magic flowing between the two of them. Magic! It was a cursed word in her life. Magic had been her mother's downfall, part of it, in any case, and magic was a part of her life too. Arwen had inherited her mother's talent. She had never told her aunt, but she could decipher the Grimmerie. However, after learning what it meant, the book, she had never dared to touch it again.

And now she had felt the same electric jolt she had felt when she had first opened the book, the Grimmerie. Coincidence?


	6. Chapter 6

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular, greengirl16 **and **Happy loving Heroes**.

**Chapter 5**

For the rest of her train-ride, Arwen tried to avoid looking at and talking to Taye. He tried but everytime he started to talk to her, she turned away or opened one of the diaries, leafing through the pages, not really reading the words that were written.

She was lost in thought, thinking about the feeling she had felt when he had touched her. No, she couldn't start letting herself feel. Not now, not until she knew who she was. She owed it to herself and her parents to find out the truth, to find her roots. Arwen knew that she wanted a love like her parents had. A love that would endure everything, even being apart from each other.

"Next stop is Kiamo Ko," Taye's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Finally," Arwen was glad that the first part of her journey would soon be over.

"Tell me again, why are you going to visit this place."

Arwen shook her head. Still she couldn't give him an answer.

"Then I hope you find what you are looking for, just Arwen," he said with a grin.

Arwen hoped that she could find what she was looking for too.

She had already figured out that the tin-man who had accompanied Dorothy towards Kiamo Ko could have been Boq, the munchkin her aunt Nessa had made loose his heart. After visiting Kiamo Ko she would travel to Munchkinland and ask him about her mother.

Arwen already knew that she had to find a believable lie to explain why she was looking for answers to unvoiced questions about the Wicked Witch. Maybe she could tell people that she intended to write a book about the Wicked Witch. There were enough books about the Wonderful Wizard and Dorothy Gale, the saviour of Oz. Now Oz needed a book about the Wicked Witch. Writing a book could be a good idea. Maybe it was her chance to tell the truth about her mother and clear her name.

Soon it was time for her to leave the train. Kiamo Ko was only a short walk away from the train station, maybe an hour away.

The castle loomed ahead of her as she walked towards it. She didn't know what she would find there. Her aunt Glinda had already described where she should start looking for answers. The room in the highest tower had been her mother's refugee, the room Arwen had seen in her nightmare.

Being here, seeing Kiamo Ko, brought back memories of a life she hadn't lived. Maybe those were her mother's memories as well.

_The green woman picked the baby up and brought the little girl's face up to her own._

"_Arwen, I am sorry. You know that I love you and that's something I thought I wouldn't be capable of. But as you grew inside me, I learned to love you as I learned to love your father. I am sure he would be proud of you. Now I have to say goodbye. I am sorry, little one, but I can't take you with me where I am going. There is one thing I have to tell you. Whatever you do I will always be proud of you, Arwen, and don't forget that I love you, always."_

_After having said goodbye to her little girl she walked over to Glinda. _

Arwen wondered for the thousandth time why she had come back to a place that held so much badness for her, so much misery. It was a place that had permanently scarred her in so many ways, the place where her mother had died.

Arwen took a deep breath and squarred her shoulders before entering Kiamo Ko. She pushed slowly on the heavy door and it swung forward, admitting her into the darkened castle.

It was as she had imagined it; an old castle once filled with life. Now the place only held the memories of a misunderstood woman, her mother. Arwen knew that she had to get upstairs, high up the tower.

Unsure of what lay ahead of her, Arwen left her suitcase in the entrance hall and began walking towards the staircase. She wanted and needed to go upstairs, to the tower room. She needed to see for herself. She needed to feel.

_A green woman was kneeling on the floor, praying. _

"_I don't believe in you, I never had. But if you exist like my sister said, I beg of you to keep my baby save. I am not worth saving, but she is. Arwen has her whole life ahead of her. Don't punish her for who her mother is. It's not her fault that I am the Wicked Witch of the West. Please, if you exist, save my baby."_

_She looked up from where she had been kneeling on the floor, towards the baby who was asleep in a basket next to her before she continued asking the Unnamed God and everyone else the Ozians believed in to save her daughter._

"_Save Arwen. I've never begged for anything in my life. I don't even want you to save me. I am not worth saving, but she is."_

Arwen gazed outside the window, imagining her mother standing here at the window, enjoying the view. The view, complete with rolling mountains and a sparkling lake, was veiled with a layer of darkness. It was only dusk, but shadowy and threatening clouds were rolling in, distantly rumbling.

It was always raining now. The sky was weeping. She had always imagined that the rain was cleansing. Arwen wanted the rain to come and wash away her fears, anxieties, and imperfections. She had always thought that she was just any ordinary girl, not popular, having very few friends. But Arwen had never cared for all of that. She had only been interested in her studies and she had achieved a lot. Sometimes she felt as if the world was closing in around her. Sometimes she needed to feel freedom or something similar. What do you call that desire to be free, to soar above the troubling world? To... fly? Yes, flying, defying gravity.

As she turned around Arwen saw a broom leaning against the wall. A magic broom? Her mother had been able to defy gravity. Could she too? There was only one way to find out.

She already imagined what she had to do. Arwen only had to hold out her hand and will the broom over to her. And that she did. The broom shot into her hand causing her to beamed with happiness: "I did it!"

This was the moment Arwen realized that she had really inherited her mother's magical talent. She was a witch like her mother had been.

Arwen mounted the broom. She wanted to fly, to defy gravity, to feel connected to her mother.

And without thinking about consequences, she kicked of the ground and soared out the tower window, flying high. She was flying through the western sky.

Like mother, like daughter.


	7. Chapter 7

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular, greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 6**

When she was safely back in the castle, Arwen finally realized what she had done. She had defied gravity. She had accepted that she was a witch. She was the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West.

She curled up into the corner, pulling her knees to her chest and set her head on top of them. This was not how things had been supposed to turn out.

Arwen clutched the black knitted shawl she had found lying on the ground in the tower room tighter. She knew from her dreams that her mother had owned a shawl like this one and she pretended that it indeed was her mother's shawl. Maybe it really was her mother's shawl. She didn't know. She only knew that she would keep the shawl as her own. It smelled of sandelwood and vanilla. It smelled of home.

"_No. Please… Please! Make it stop… Dear Lurline I am sorry for my sins but I only wanted to do good. I meant no harm…" But her pleading was cut off with a shout of pain._

_By now she was begging this woman, Yantar, for help as tears streamed down her face. She wasn't crying because the pain of childbirth was too much to bear. She was crying about the unfairness in her life. She who was wicked was alive while all the good people died. She who only wanted to be loved, wanted to have somewhere where she belonged, where she didn't have to suffer through the loss of loved ones. _

_And after what seemed like days for her__, but in reality had been only a couple of hours, the first scream of a child echoed through the cabin._

"_A girl," Yantar announced as she cleaned up the baby._

"_Is it-" Elphaba couldn't finish the question. She already feared the answer._

"_Not green."_

Her mother had been afraid that she would be green too? Being born green, what difference would it have made in her life?

Arwen knew now that her mother had been shunned because of her green skin. She remembered that Madame Morrible, the former press-secretary of the Wizard, had warned the Ozians about her mother. Morrible had said that 'her green skin is but an outward manifestation of her twisted nature'. If she had been born green, she would have been shunned too. She would have been an outcast because of her skin.

But there had been people in her mother's life that had seen past the green skin, her father being one of them.

Arwen got up from her place on the floor. It was time to go. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Arwen walked over to a place near the fireplace and found a dried flower lay on the ground. As she picked the flower up she discovered that it was a hairpin. She clutched the hairpin in her hand. Was it another reminder of her mother?

She had one last stop to make before she would visit her grandparents.

It was time to visit the tin-man.


	8. Chapter 8

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular, greengirl16, TillIlltryIllneverknow **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 7**

Ironically, the tin-man or Boq still lived in Nest Harding, near the place Nessarose Thropp had lived. His house was the house next door.

Arwen had already walked past the place where her aunt had been crushed, but hadn't neared the place. And she had seen a cornfield near the yellow-brick-road, somewhere behind the house. After talking to the tin-man she intended to maybe visit the cornfield, the place her father had died.

As she stood in front of the house waiting after knocking, hoping that someone would open the door, she thought about what she would say to him. She thought about the lie she would tell the man made of tin. Of course, it would only be half of a lie since she really intended to write a book about her mother. Arwen knew that Oz needed to know the truth about her mother. She owed it to her mother to clear her name.

"What do you want?" was the first thing the tin-man said as he opened the door.

"Hello Mister Tin-man. I come from the Emerald City and wanted to talk to you about someone you once knew," Arwen told him.

"Who?"

"I want to know more about the Wicked Witch of the West, her early years, her childhood, the way she lived."

"Why are you interested in her story? There are enough books about how Dorothy Gale saved us, go and read them. There you will find all the information you need to know about this repulsion. But maybe you are a supporter of wickedness?"

_Damnit, he senses that something is not right_, Arwen thought. She had to come up with a good story, a perfect lie. It would have the tendency to make people squeamish when they learned that your mother was the Wicked Witch of the West. She wondered how long anyone would stick around once they found out who her mother was.

"We need a book about her, to warn others that wickedness can happen and how to discover those traits at the very beginning," Arwen explained.

"A book about the Wicked Witch?"

"I know that you knew her from before, Master Boq," Arwen said, calling him by his real name.

"How… you… how do you know my name?" he finally asked.

"I researched her life. I talked to people who had known her from the beginning, Glinda the Good being one of them and she mentioned your name," Arwen lied.

"Glinda, oh, beautiful Glinda. I remember her. Her blond hair, she is a beauty."

"Maybe we could talk inside," Arwen suggested.

"Oh yes. We can talk about Glinda. I'll tell you everything I know."

Arwen followed the tin-man inside his house. She knew that she would at some point she would have to steer the conversation back to the things she wanted and needed to know.

But first, while she sat in front of the fireplace, she had to listen to the tin-man prattle on about her aunt.

"I met Glinda the Good at Shiz. Back then she was Galinda but she later changed her name. I was always in love with her. She is beautiful and I have always imagined that it would be me who could make her happy. She had no luck with men. The Vinkie-prince left her for the witch," he spat out the last word.

"You knew the people who went to Shiz with Glinda the Good. Tell me about them."

"They weren't important. Not as important as Glinda."

"What about Elphaba Thropp or her sister Nessarose?" Arwen asked nevertheless.

The tin-man's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't heard either name in years. For him, they had always been the Wicked Witch of the West and her wicked sister, Madam Governer. Both women had been responsible for him being turned into a tin-man. Yes, it had been the spell of the Wicked Witch of the West that had made him a man of tin but her sister had held him hostage in her house. He had been her servant and the price he had paid for his want and need for freedom had been to be turned into a tin-man.

"There is no story to tell."

"You were friends with Nessarose Thropp back at Shiz," Arwen said. She had learned as much from reading her mother's diaries. She knew what had happend at the Ozdust. She even knew how he became the tin-man. Arwen knew about the spell gone wrong and how her mother had tried to save him.

"Glinda asked me to be nice to her."

"You only were nice to her because Glinda the Good had asked you?" Arwen asked for confirmation.

"Yes and no. It wasn't easy not to like her. She was a pretty young woman and you felt sorry for her when you saw her sitting in her wheelchair. But when you got to know the real Nessarose Thropp you discovered that she was as wicked as her older sister, Elphaba."

"Tell me more," Arwen urged him on.

He wouldn't tell her some sugar-coated truth about her family. But on the other hand, she knew that he was angry with them and would overdo his telling of what he believed to be the truth. She had to be careful about what she believed.

"I remember something. At the beginning, when I took her to the Ozdust. I wanted to explain why I took her. I couldn't lie. She deserved the truth. But when I started to tell her, she interrupted me, saying something like that we deserved each other. And I was a mere munchkin, not some famous prince, so part of me knew that Glinda would never love me. I guess this has something to do with not telling Nessarose the truth from the beginning. Maybe if I had told her that I was only nice because Glinda asked me to be, I would still be a munchkin and not a man made of tin."

Arwen nodded.

"But it wasn't Nessa who turned me into a tin-man, it was her sister."

"Tell me about her. Did you know from the first time when you saw her that she would be the Wicked Witch of the West, that she would turn you into a tin man?"

Boq was about to answer but then, before he even uttered the first word, he stopped and looked at the young woman sitting in front of him. Why was she curious about the Wicked Witch of the West?

"What do you say your name was?" he asked her instead.

"Arwen."

"Last name?"

If she said Tiggular or Thropp, he would immediatly knew who she really was: the child of the wicked, related to people he despised.

"Notaro," Arwen said It was the first name that came to her mind. It was also the last name of the young man she had met on the train.

"Tell me again Miss Notaro, why are you interested in knowing the story of the most evil person who had ever been lived? There is nothing to tell. Or do you want to know how she turned me into tin? I tell you how she did it! Her sister, Madam Governor, wanted to keep me as her personal slave and just because for the fun of it, her sister, the Wicked Witch turned me into a tin-man because she could! There is no glorious story! Nothing you can write a book about. I wish I never went to Shiz and never met either Nessarose or Elphaba! I wish that I would have known all those years ago that those two girls would bring terror and pain to my life but back then I ignored the signs. They have always been evil. One of them was ruling and enslaving Munchkinland while the other brought fear to Oz! There is nothing I want to tell you and now I advise you to leave me alone!"

Arwen simply grabbed her bag and left the house without turning back. She had sensed that staying wouldn't do her any good. Without glancing backwards she walked over towards the house that had crushed her aunt Nessarose.

Arwen looked at it. This was the place that had brought pain to her family.

Her mother had grown up in this place, without people who loved her. Her father, Arwen's grandfather, had hated his green-skinned daughter and Nessarose Thropp had treated her like a servant. The house of Nessarose Thropp was the place where her mother had been lured into a trap, which had a deadly end for her father.

As she looked at the remains of the house Arwen had another vision, another memory of long ago.

"_Elphaba, shut up! First of all, I can't harbor a fugitive__. I'm an un-elected official! And why should I even help you? You fly around Oz, trying to rescue animals you've never even met. Not once have you ever thought to use your powers to rescue me!" Nessarose was angry because her sister, for once, had not catered to her every whim. For once in her life, Nessarose had to find another willing or unwilling slave.  
_

"_Nessa, listen, there isn't a spell for everything! The power I have is still mysterious to me. Sometimes I don't even understand the spells in the book." Then Elphaba pulled a book, the Grimmerie, out of her bag. After leafing through it, searching for something, she began chanting a spell, words unknown to her sister._

"_What is that? Elphaba! What are you doing to me? My shoes! It feels like they're on fire! What have you done to my shoes?"_

_And after discovering that she was able to walk for the first time in her life, Nessarose Thropp sat down in her wheelchair, wanting to surprise the only person that still was by her side since her sister had abandoned her._

_  
"Boq! Boq! Come quickly! Boq! __Come here at once!  
_

"_No! Nessa, listen, nobody can know I'm here!" Elphaba panicked._

_But it was already too late to hide. The Munchkin had only been on the other side of the floor, two rooms down.  
_

"_Yes, what is it, Madame?"  
_

"_Boq." Elphaba was surprised and shocked to see the Munchkin who had went to Shiz with them.  
_

"_What are you doing here? You stay back!" Now it was Boq's turn to panic.  
_

"_Boq, it's just me, Elphaba. I'm not going to hurt you! I promise."  
_

"_No, you're lying! That's all you ever do! You and your sister! She's as wicked as you are!" He accused her of all the things unsaid.  
_

"_What are you talking about?" Elphaba asked, looking from Boq to her sister in disbelief.  
_

"_I'm talking about my life, the little that's left of it. I'm not free to leave Munchkinland, none of us are. Ever since she took power, she's been stripping the Munchkins of our rights, and we didn't have that many to begin with! And do you know why?"  
_

"_To keep you here, with me. But none of that matters anymore. Look." And with that being said, Nessarose stood up and took her first few real steps.  
_

"_You did this for her?" Boq's whole demeanor changed.  
_

"_For both of us! Elphaba did it for both of us. Isn't it wonderful?"  
_

"_Nessa, this changes everything."  
_

"_I know Boq. "  
_

"_Oh, Nessa, I lost my heart to Glinda from the moment I first saw her. You know that," Those were the words that sealed his future as a tin-man.  
_

"_Lost your heart? Well, we'll see about that."  
_


	9. Chapter 9

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular, TillIlltryIllneverknow **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 8**

Since she needed more answers then her mother's diaries could provide her with, Arwen was now sitting on the train on her way towards the castle her grandparents lived in, Erised Emoh.

After the last vision, she hadn't been strong enough to visit the cornfield where her father had died. It was a visit for another day, not today.

The last few days and the things she had discovered about her roots had been too much for Arwen. She was drained, emotionally and physically drained. But falling asleep would mean another dream. Was she ready for another dream? Another vision? Arwen didn't know. But for a moment she wished that the dreams had never started.

She opened another diary to distract her from thinking and to keep herself from falling asleep.

_23th August_

_Fiyero was my first._

_He was the first I fell in love with, the first to kiss me and the first one who loved me, emotionally and physically._

_I can't even explain the way he made me feel. It was like flying and dancing and running and walking and breathing and living together. I have always loved him. But I had never had him, not until he had left Glinda for me. It's like I've always heard; i__f you love someone, set him or her free. And after all, he wasn't meant to love me, the green freak of Oz. But then, I had always watched him and Glinda from afar. It was enough for me, knowing that he was happy, loved and safe was all I ever asked for. Besides, unrequited love was the only love that would have lasted in my life, as I had always thought, even though Fiyero really loved me. _

_But our love hadn't lasted. Yes, part of our love will live on in the baby I carry, but he won't be there. He won't ever tell me that he loves me, that I am beautiful._

_He won't ever hold me__ or touch me. _

_He is dead and will never come back. He died for me. _

And when it was time to leave the train for the last stop of her journey, Arwen could, once again, already see the castle looming in the distance.

This time, instead of walking as she had done on her way to Kiamo Ko, Arwen rented a carriage to take her to Erised Emoh.

"You have business with the Queen and the King?" the driver asked her, intending to make chit-chat.

"Sort of."

"I remember when I drove the prince home everytime he returned from school."

"Fiyero Tiggular?" Arwen asked.

"Yes, our deceased crown-prince. I knew the young lad. It's a shame that he had to die like that and even a greater shame that they believe him to be a traitor."

"What do his parents believe?"

"Not what everyone in Oz believes. We in the Vinkus, we who had known the crown prince, can't believe that he was a traitor. There must have been a reason why he followed that woman, why he left Glinda the Good."

"Maybe he loved her," Arwen suggested, testing the driver.

"I don't know, only suspected that he had met a girl at Shiz that he loved."

"He didn't tell you?"

"He didn't have to. I could read him like an open book the last time I drove him home. It was the last time I saw him alive. After he left home to join Glinda the Good in the Emerald City he never came home. There wasn't even a body for his parents to bury. It's a shame. This young lad had to die far away from home, gone too soon and lots of lots of people call him a traitor."

Maybe, since this man believed her father to be in love, her grandparents had believed it too. Maybe her father had even told his parents about her mother. Arwen could only hope that her grandparents would either already know the truth of her father's feelings for her mother or that they didn't believe the lies Madame Morribe and the Wizard had spread throughout Oz.

"Here we are!" the voice of the driver interrupted Arwen's thought.

Gathering up her courage, Arwen exited the carriage and walked over towards the entrance. She knocked hesitantly and waited for someone to let her in. Only the door was between herself and her grandparents. Just a couple more moments and she would meet the last of her family, the only living family she still had.

"What do you want?" the maid asked Arwen as she opened the door

"Tell the Queen and the King, that I want to talk to them."

Arwen looked at the woman who had opened the door for her. Should she introduce herself as Arwen Tiggular? What would the woman, the maid, say? Would she be surprised? There was only one way to find out.

"And whom may I say is here to see them?"

"Arwen Tiggular, the daughter of Fiyero Tiggular, the deceased crown prince of the Vinkus."

The maid gasped.

The crown prince was dead and, as far as anyone knew, he hadn't fathered a child. They would have known if he had.

Sure, the young prince had had a dancing-through-life attitude, but fathering a child out of wedlock, never! His former fiancé Glinda the Good had never given birth and the girl didn't look like Glinda the Good. Her hair wasn't blond, it was a dark ebony color, but she had the eyes of the prince. Maybe he did have a daughter. Maybe part of the prince was still alive.


	10. Chapter 10

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **FaeTiggular, greengirl16, TillIlltryIllneverknow **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 9**

To say that the news of a woman claiming to be the daughter of the deceased crown prince shocked the inhabitants of the castle was the understatment of the year. The maid had been so surprised she had forgotten all about protocol and burst into the sitting room of the royal family, announcing that there was a woman claiming to be a Tiggular, claiming to be the daughter of Fiyero.

Now Arwen sat in said sitting room, facing her grandparents.

"How can we be sure that you are our granddaughter?" the Queen asked Arwen.

"I can't prove who I am because there is no birth certificate stating that I am Arwen Liora Tiggular. The only proof of my parentage comes from my aunt, Glinda the Good, and a letter she had found tucked between my baby-blanket."

Arwen held the letter out towards the Queen, her grandmother.

"A letter?"

"My mother wrote it, explaining who I am," Arwen answered.

The King, her grandfather, took the letter and started to read it out loud:

_Y__our Majesty, _

_You don't know me, not the real me, in any case. Everyone in Oz knows me as the Wicked Witch of the West and maybe I am the Witch. After the death of your son I realized that whatever I did, every good deed, went wrong and I decided to give the Ozians what they wanted most: the Wicked Witch of the West. That's who I am now. But I am someone else too. The baby you found on your doorstep is your granddaughter, Arwen Liora Tiggular. Before he died, your son fathered a child, my child. I know you have already heard what happened in the Emerald City and that your son ran away with me. I love your son and he was the only one who had ever loved me. He was no traitor. What he did, he did because he loved me. He saved my unborn daughter and me the day my sister died. I wish I could turn back time and find a way to save Fiyero. I wish things could be different, but they aren't. I know that I can't save myself either. I am going to die at the hand of the witch-hunters soon. The only one I can save is Fiyero's daughter, your granddaughter and the only way I can save her is to send her to you. Don't hate her for who her mother is, but love her for who her father is. _

_Yours sincer__ely,_

_Elphaba Thropp_

"You're the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West?" Liora Tiggular asked for confirmation.

"That's what everyone in Oz called her, but yes, I am her daughter."

The King and the Queen looked at each other. The young woman claimed to be their granddaughter. Yes, she had Fiyero's blue eyes but everything else she must have inherited from her mother and with both being dead there was no way to find out if she really was telling the truth. Part of both of them longed for it to be true.

"You have to believe that the possibility of our son fathering a child before he died would make us very happy but…" Sahar Tiggular started to formulate a diplomatic answer.

"But you find it hard to believe that your son, who could have any woman he wanted, fell for the Wicked Witch of the West, " Arwen interrupted him, finishing the sentence he had started.

"I suppose so, yes."

Arwen nodded. She had known that she could never expect those people, her grandparents, to welcome her with arms wide open. For more then 20 years they had mourned their only child, for more then 20 years they had known nothing of their granddaughter. Now, suddenly, she appeared and claimed to be the daughter of their son with only a letter as a proof.

"What else do you want me to do to prove that I am your granddaughter?"

Maybe she could let them read an entry or two of her mother's diary to give them some more proof.


	11. Chapter 11

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 10**

"You can stay here, as our guest, Miss Arwen," the King finally said.

It was hard for them to believe that their son had fathered a child before he had died, a child with the Wicked Witch of the West of all people.

"But you don't believe that I am your granddaughter."

"It's hard to believe. We need some kind of proof that you are who you claim to be. We need proof that our son loved your mother. He had never mentioned her and it's hard to believe that our son, who had the girls fall in love with him because he smiled at them, would have settled for someone like…" It was there he trailed off.

But Arwen had heard enough to be able to fill the rest of his sentence with words like unpopular, plain, bookish or wicked to describe her mother. They disliked a woman they had never met just because she had been different.

"What more proof do you need? Isn't my existence enough proof that my parents loved each other? Or that he died saving my mother and me? Is it so hard to believe that he finally realized that real love wasn't about the most popular girl and the famous prince going out together but that it was your feelings that counted most? Or maybe his last words before he died are proof enough! He knew that even death couldn't end his feelings for my mother. My aunt Glinda told me his last words. His thoughts were with his beloved Fae, my mother. I can't give you more than this but there are people who believe me, or would if they knew my story. The carriage-driver, for example, told me that on my father's last visit he realized that my father was deeply in love. Or the maid who opened the door for me," Arwen looked at them.

She was angry. No, more than angry. Part of her had hoped that she would be welcomed with open arms, but she never anticipated that they would react like this. Yes, Arwen had heard all the horror stories about the Wicked Witch of the West and how she mutilated innocent Animals or brought terror to OZ, but the woman had another side; a loving and caring side. She had been her mother and she had loved the people in her life. Her mother had even tried to save her father.

Arwen once had a vision about her mother trying to cast a spell. She learned from the vision and her mother's diary that her mother had believed her father's death to be her own fault. Her mother had believed that if she hadn't loved him then he would still be alive. Her love had killed him.

Later, when she was in a guest room, she still was angry with her grandparents for not believing her story. Part of her had hoped to be welcomed with open arms but it had only been wishful thinking.

Arwen sat cross-legged on the padded window seat in the room, staring out into the pouring rain nostalgically. It was always raining during the most important points in her life, starting with the day she had been born to the day she had learned the truth about her parentage.

She was reminiscing the past few weeks of her life, which held a colourful mix of joy, sadness, anger, confusion, and hurt. Arwen couldn't recall ever going through a phase of her life as intimidating and chock-full of emotion as that. It scared her. She carefully unfolded her legs and brought her knees up to her chin, rocking slowly from side to side.

During the last weeks she had discovered that she was like her mother, that she was a witch too. Arwen had learnt that she had the ability to defy gravity. And she had learned a couple of important things about her parents too, for example: that the love her father had felt for her mother had changed his view on love and life in general and that her mother had believed that her love had killed her father.

Arwen was about to reach for one of her mother's diaries to distract her from her unhappy thoughts when a knock at the door startled her.

"Who is it?" she called out.

"Queen Liora."

"Come in."

Arwen wondered what her grandmother could want. They both had made it clear that Arwen was only a guest to them, that she wasn't accepted as their granddaughter.

Queen Liora walked into the room, looking at Arwen. All the while she had asked herself if the girl, no the young woman, was really her granddaughter. Could her son really have loved this woman, this Wicked Witch? Glinda the Good had told them that her son had, on the day of his engagment to her, Glinda, decided to leave her and run away with another woman. That woman was the Wicked Witch of the West. A day later he had died. Could have one short day be enough to father a child?

"We left some words unsaid during our talk."

Arwen looked at her. What else was left to say?

"It is not easy for us to believe your story. All these years we have mourned the loss of our only child. We cried because there was nothing left of him. We didn't even had a body to bury. And now, with him dead more then 20 years, there appears some woman at our door who announces that she is the illegitimate child of our son," the Queen continued.

"You think I came to the Vinkus to claim the title of crown-princess or because I want money? If so, then you are wrong. I came here because I wanted to find out who I really am. I wanted to meet the only family I have left, to discover where I belong. I only want someone to love me. No ulterior motives."

The Queen sat down on the bed, looking at Arwen, who remained sitting on the window seat. There was a resemblance to her son in Arwen. The eyes were the same that stared back at her everytime she looked into a mirror and they were the same one's her son had possessed.

It would be wonderful to simply believe that part of her son still lived on.


	12. Chapter 12

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Anarra, greengirl16, TillIlltryIllneverknow **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 11**

That night Arwen fell into a restless sleep, having weird dreams about a scarecrow building a snowman.

A couple of doors down, the King and the Queen sat in their bedroom talking about their guest.

"Maybe she is who she claims to be," Liora said.

"Our granddaughter? It's not easy to believe."

"But she has my eyes, Fiyero's eyes."

"Eyes aren't the kind of proof I need," he argued with his wife.

Liora Tiggular sighed.

"Liora, be realistic. Do you believe that our son loved the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"He must have. Otherwise he wouldn't have left Glinda for her. The girl said Fiyero was in love with someone the last time he came for a visit. I remember the talk I had with him all these years ago. He asked me if I would have married you when everyone else would have been against the marriage. I told him that being in love mattered more to me than the opinion of other people and that I hoped that he would choose his bride to be because he loved her. And, of couse, there is the letter Glinda wrote us after Fiyero's death," she answered.

Both remembered the letter. After what had happened in Nest Harding Glinda had written them. She had needed to tell them the truth.

"Glinda wrote that our Fiyero died saving the one he loved. We assumed that she meant herself. Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe the truth is that he followed the woman everyone calls the Wicked Witch of the West because he loved her," Liora told her husband.

"A fool in love can do a lot of dangerous and stupid things."

"He was no fool."

"Leaving a wonderful life, a future as the husband of Glinda the Good and being King of the Vinkus to follow the greatest enemy of Oz is foolish."

"If I remember correctly it was you who told our son that you would prefer a maid for a daughter-in-law as opposed to someone dressed in nauseatic colors and frilly dresses," she reminded her husband.

Sahar Tiggular sighed. His wife had a point. He had wanted a daughter-in-law that was brain and beauty, not some dumb blonde girl dressed in a nauseatic pink dress.

Maybe they had to accept that their son had fathered the young woman who was currently staying with them and that she was the future Queen of the Vinkus.

Tomorrow he would have a serious talk woth his granddaughter. Granddaughter! He and his wife had always longed for a grandchild. And with their son dead, they had never dreamed it possible.

He had already started thinking about who would inherit the throne after his death. Taye Notaro, a young Gilikin, and youngest son of the duke of Gilkin, had been his first choice. Maybe now he wouldn't need to search for a successor. He had a granddaughter who would inherit the throne.

Queen Arwen of the Vinkus.

Meanwhile, three doors down, Arwen, who had woken up from her restless sleep, was standing at the window gazing outside when her eyes suddenly widened in shock. High up the western sky she saw someone or something flyiing. It looked a bit like a flying monkey.


	13. Chapter 13

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillIlltryIllneverknow **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 12**

The next couple of days passed in a blur for Arwen. Her days were now filled with long talks with her grandparents and preparations for the festival season. Her grandparents celebrated mid-summer. And for nearly a week, there were festivities to attend. Not to mention the Mid-Summer Ball, which concluded the merriment.

Her grandparents wanted to introduce her as the crown-princess at the beginning of the festival season. This meant that she would finally, officially, have a place where she belonged. It scared Arwen.

She had always longed for a place where she belonged and now, with the announcement being only a few short days away, she wasn't sure if this was what she had always wanted.

Arwen had started her journey because she wanted to learn more about her parents. She wanted to gather as much information as she could about them, but she hadn't learned enough.

Yes, her grandmother had told her a lot of stories about her father when he was a little boy and she had seen pictures of him. But it wasn't enough. Nothing would ever be enough. Not while her parents were still be dead.

Arwen was about to pick up one of her mother's diaries when her grandmother entered the room.

"What are you reading?" She already knew about Arwen's thirst for knowledge.

"My mother's diary. My aunt kept them all those years."

"They are filled with your mother's memories?"

"Yes. Reading those books is like she is telling me her story herself. It's like she is still with me, talking to me. I feel a connection with her when I read her memories. I haven't read in any of her books since I arrived here."

"Would you read an entry for me? I would like to get to know the woman my son fell in love with."

Arwen considered the request for a moment. She had never thought about sharing her mother's thoughts with anyone else but she could understand her grandmother's request. There was no one who could tell her anything about Elphaba Thropp, the woman her son had loved, the woman her son had died for.

Arwen finally nodded before she opened the book, reading out loud:

_28 May _

_I don't know if I should feel excited. Part of me is afraid. I am off to see the Wizard. Madame Morrible surprised me with the letter yesterday. Back then I hadn't been able to feel anything. Well, actually. I felt everything that day._

_First I was unhappy because Doctor Dillamond was arrested. Then I got angry because our new professor presented us a caged Lion cub. The nerve of that man…_

_And I am still not able to really describe my feelings for Fiyero. He could be the boy I love. I do have some kind of feelings for him but I am not sure if it is love because I have never experienced what other people call love. My mother died before I had a real chance to get to know her and my father hated me from the day I was born green. _

_But love is the opposite of hate. Maybe everyone who doesn't treat me as my father does loves me. Oh, what a foolish thought. No one can love me. I only bring pain and destruction. But maybe when I am the vizier, working with the Wizard, people will accept and love me._

_Maybe he would love me."_

Arwen saw tears brimming in her grandmother's eyes.

"Why would she think that she isn't worth being loved?"

"Everyday in her life she was reminded that she was a freak, mother nature's cruel joke, " Arwen answered.

Her grandmother stood up and walked over to the vanity.

"We should have a look if your dress needs alterations," she changed the topic.

Liora made a promise to herself to talk to her husband about what she had learned about the woman her son had loved and died for. She would make sure that Arwen would never ever feel unloved.

"Which dress?"

"For tonight. Tonight we are going to introduce you as the crown-princess."

"This is my best dress," Arwen told her as she stood up. She was wearing a black satin halter dress that had an A-line skirt with a small train.

"Black?"

"My mother's favourite color."

"Still, why don't we have a look at your other dresses?" Liora suggested. A young girl wearing a black dress when she wasn't a widow was unheard of. Liora would make sure that Arwen would be wearing a beautiful evening gown. Maybe something in purple or green. She already imagined what kind of gown Arwen should and would wear. A gorgeous violet off the shoulder ball gown dress with cap sleeves and elegant embroidery details at the bust line.


	14. Chapter 14

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**. isn't working properly, I am not receiving any pm's or alerts, so if someone tried to pm me, I never received anything and I ask you to try again.

Laird is Scottish, meaning wealthy landowner. Betrys is Welsh, meaning bringer of joy. Taye is African and means "he has been seen". It's also Idina Menzel's husband's name.

**Chapter 13**

On the eve of the opening of the festival season in the Vinkus, Arwen stood next to her grandparents. She was nervous.

Arwen already knew that they would be presenting her as the crown princess. Important people were at the festival, even her Aunt Glinda as the ruler of the Emerald City and Oz. But Arwen hadn't had the chance to talk to her aunt before this evening. She would maybe be able to do so later. Right now she watched as her grandfather stepped forward.

"My wife, Queen Liora, and myself are very happy about our next announcment. All these years we have mourned for our son, we didn't even have a body to bury. But now, many years later, we have learned that our son fathered a child before he died. I am proud to present you, Arwen Tiggular, daughter of Fiyero Tiggular and Elphaba Thropp, the Third Descending of Munchkinland, our crown princess and future Queen of the Vinkus."

Arwen looked at her grandfather in shock. She hadn't known that he would introduce her by telling the crowd the names of her parents, especially her mother's name. She could only hope that people had forgotten that the Wicked Witch of the West once had had a name, an identity.

As the crowd started to walk towards her, Arwen had to fight all the different emotions – fear, anger, sadness, joy. What would happen to her if the found out that she was the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West, the child of the wicked? Would she be burnt on the stake? Thrown into prison? Arwen already saw various scenarios play infront of her inner eye.

"Hello Just Arwen," she heard a voice say to her and as she looked for the source of the voice, she saw Taye, the annoying young man from her train-ride. "Let me introduce myself properly, princess. I am Taye Notaro, son of Laird Notaro, Duke of Gilikin."

Princess! She was officially a princess now. She had been one since the moment she was born but now hearing people refer to her as Princess Arwen was something totally different.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," Taye answered and kissed her hand.

And there was this feeling again. The same she had had on the train when he had touched her. Was it fate's way to tell her something? Like it had been fate that she had discovered that she had her mother's talent?

Out of instinct she pulled her hand away as if his kiss had burnt her.

"Don't do it again," she hissed.

"Sorry," he responded and then, out of nowhere, it came. "Would you like to dance?"

Arwen was taken slightly off guard by his question, and even more so when he smiled and stuck his hand out for her to take. In that moment she was beautiful and she felt it too.

She was in a dream. He led her out to the dance floor and took her small hand in his larger one as he placed a hand on her waist. His hand seemed so big to her. As they swayed back and forth on the dance floor they Arwen felt so happy, so content.

Arwen knew that she was acting bipolar. One moment she craved his touch and the next she felt repulsive. She had never been touched, not like this. Back at Shiz she had buried herself in her studies, needing to prove that despite being an orphan she could achieve anything she wanted. Then later, after she learned the identities of her parents, she was afraid that others would think less of her. She was the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West. The title had brought pain and destruction into the life of her mother. She was afraid that she and people she loved would suffer the same fate.

Arwen had already discovered that she was a witch too. Maybe from the day she was born she had been doomed to be the next Wicked Witch of the West.

As she realized the impact of her thought Arwen felt tears pooling in her eyes. Taye saw them. He had seen the emotions flickering through her eyes.

"Everything all right?" he asked concerned.

He had seen her black out once, on the train. Taye was afraid that something like that would happen again, that she would faint again.

Arwen shook her head. She didn't know what else to do. She knew that people wanted her to play the happy role of the crown princess. Part of her longed for such happiness. But still, she missed her parents.

"Let's get some fresh air," Taye suggested and let her outside on a balcony.

His parents, Laird and Betrys Notaro, Arwen's grandparents, King Sahar and Queen Liora, and her aunt Glinda were watching the young couple leave.

"They remind me of her parents," Glinda said and sighed.

"You knew them?" Betrys Notaro asked curious.

"Elphie was my best friend."

Glinda smiled. If they only knew. Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, best friends, what would they think of her? Glinda hated that she couldn't tell people the truth about the Wicked Witch but she had promised Elphaba not to try and clear her name. Glinda would stay true to her promise.

Outside, on the balcony, Arwen leaned against the balustrade, trying to fight a memory that was about to take over her mind again. She couldn't control the memories. They always appeared out of nowhere, like right now.

_She was excited and nervous. Today she would finally start at Shiz. Elphaba finally had the chance to visit a normal school. Back in Munchkinland, after a disaster at school that hadn't really been her fault, she was home-schooled together with her sister Nessarose. _

_Elphaba tried to make herself believe that her father didn't send her to Shiz only to have her play the servant to her little sister. She tried to imagine that he had sent her to Shiz so she could learn all the things she had always wished to know. But in reality Elphaba knew that it only was wishful thinking. If Nessarose weren't alive, she would never ever be allowed to attend Shiz._

_And as always, the students were staring at her. She was used to it. _

"_What?! What are you looking at? Oh, do I have something in my teeth? Okay, let's get this over with. No, I'm not seasick. Yes, I've always been green. No, I didn't chew grass as a child."  
_

"_Elphaba!" she heard her father call out in a stern voice._

_  
__"Oh, this is my younger sister, Nessarose. As you can see, she is a perfectly normal color," Elphaba continued, needing to point out that the rest of her family was normal, whatever normal meant._

_  
__"Elphaba, stop making a spectacle of yourself! I'm only sending you here for one reason..."  
_

"_Yes, I know, to look after Nessarose," she sighed._

_  
__"My precious little girl, a parting gift," she heard her father say._

_He had gotten Nessa another parting gift. He had already given her a necklace that had belonged to their mother. Elphaba had only a small glass bottle as a reminder of her dead mother while Nessa got all the big presents. Not that she would have cared for something big or fancy, but a new book or book bag would have been nice._

_  
__"Now, father... jeweled shoes!" Nessa squealed in delight._

_  
__"As befits the future governor of Munchkinland. Elphaba, take care of your sister. And try not to talk so much!" And with that, he left his children at Shiz._

"_Elphaba..." Nessa started, but she was unsure of how to continue. _

_  
__"Well what could he have gotten me? I clash with everything!"  
_

"Arwen!"

Taye's voice brought her out of her memory. Arwen blinked back the tears that had gathered in her eyes. All the memories she now had were powerful and sad memories. Sometimes she woke up drenched in sweat. Twice she had screamed bloody murder in her sleep and had woken up the entire castle with her screams.

"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Nothing, everything," was her cryptic reply.

"We all have are secrets, Arwen. Some are meant to be kept and sometimes they're meant to be told to the people you trust most in the world," Taye told her.

"You want to know my secrets?"

"Tell me what is bothering you."

Arwen shook her head. No, she couldn't tell him. Why was he even interested in her problems?

He was a dreamer, someone who was dancing through life. He didn't care for her. He couldn't.


	15. Chapter 15

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillIlltryillneverknow, HaChosenOne **and **Juelz Rox**.

**g****reengirl16:** I hope you like this and the next few chapters. I gave your pm and your suggestion some thought and have come up with some drama in the later chapters.

**Chapter 14**

During dinner, Arwen sat next to her grandparents with her aunt Glinda on her other side. Even so, she still had to make small talk with various people she had never met.

Suddenly, someone steered the conversation towards a topic that literally took Arwen's breath away.

"There had been sightings of someone flying over Oz. Rumor is that the Wicked Witch of the West had returned from the dead."

"She is dead," Glinda protested.

"Yes, there was a melting more than 20 years," someone said.

"23 years to be exact," Arwen interrupted the man.

"We believed her to be dead but now she seems to be back. And if it isn't her, maybe her child," another man suggested.

Arwen tried to keep her calm. Had someone seen her flying? Sometimes, when she felt down, emotionally drained, she took her broom and went flying over Oz, but only in the cover of the dark night. She had always made sure that no one could see her.

"If she had a child, we would have already known by now. And after all, who would have loved her? Who would have fathered the child of the wicked? She wasn't someone you could love. She was only the Wicked Witch of the West," Glinda lied.

Glinda hoped that Arwen would stay calm. She had learned from experience what could happen when Elphaba, and now Arwen, got upset. There had been an incident years ago, when they had celebrated the 20th anniversary of the melting. Arwen had learned a year earlier about her parents. During a dinner in the palace in the Emerald City, someone had made a toast, saying something like 'Thank Oz we never have to fear the Wicked Witch again.' Glinda couldn't remember the exact wording, but she remembered that a moment later every piece of glass in the room had exploded; Arwen's doing.

"Princess Arwen, your majesty, what do you think of such rumor? The Wicked Witch of the West returned from the dead?" someone asked her.

Arwen took a deep breath. She tried everything to stay calm. She couldn't loose her cool, not now, not ever. The Ozians weren't ready to learn the truth of the Wicked Witch of the West, not tonight, but hopefully some day soon.

"I suggest we change the topic of our dinner conversation. The possible return of the Wicked Witch of the West isn't something that should be discussed with our wives and daughters present," King Sahar answered instead.

"No grandfather, let me answer."

"Arwen, are you-" he started.

"To answer your question, I never lived in fear of the Wicked Witch of the West. I was a baby, only a couple of months old, when she melted. I don't know anything about the terror you say she had brought over Oz. But I ask myself: Why would she return now? Why not ten or twenty years ago? Is there even a reason for her to be back? I don't think so, and until there is a real proof that she is back, I won't believe the rumors," Arwen said.

Could her mother still be alive? No. If she was she would have contacted her daughter. Arwen was sure that her mother wouldn't have forgotten about her. If she was still alive, Elphaba Thropp would have contacted her only child. Arwen would search for her mother if there were the possibility that she could be alive. But her mother melted. She was dead. Or was she?

The rest of the dinner was spent in silence, only interrupted by trivial conversations. Arwen had enough time to ponder the possibility of her mother's return to the land of the living.

Everyone had said that pure water could melt the Wicked Witch, that she was allergic to water. Could someone really be allergic to water? Arwen thought hard. Had she ever read anything about her mother's allergy in one of her diaries? No. Had she ever had a vision that suggested that her mother had been allergic to water? No.

The realization, the vision, hit her like the cold water had hit her mother 23 years ago in Kiamo Ko.

_A scarecrow and a green woman stood on a hill, watching the sun go down in the distant._

"_We can never return. No one can ever know that we are alive," the scarecrow said._

"_Not even Glinda?"_

"_Especially not Glinda. It's for the best that everyone, even Glinda, believes that the Wicked Witch of the West had been melted."_

"No!" Arwen jumped up from her seat. Her mother was alive. It couldn't be.

"Arwen?"

Her grandmother and her aunt Glinda looked at the girl. She was white as a sheet.

"You look like you have seen a ghost," Taye said.

"More like someone-" but then she stopped. She couldn't tell them what she had seen. She had to sort through her memories first. Maybe her mind had been playing her a trick. Maybe she had only seen what she had wanted, what she had longed, to see.

"I have to go," she continued and ran out of the room, leaving a stunned crowd behing.

Arwen ran down the deserted corridors of Derised Emoh, tears blurring her vision as she desperately sought out a way to escape her feelings.

He had glanced at her a couple of times during dinner, making her feel giddy, like a wave of happiness had washed over her, leaving her reeling in its wake. And now she just realized that there was a chance that her mother was still alive. It was too much for her.

"Arwen, wait up!" A voice called down the long corridor.

Arwen stopped and her blood froze as she recognised the voice. _Oh, Taye,_ she found herself thinking as she turned around, coming face to face with a puffing and very exhausted Taye.

She looked at him wistfully, trying to keep a rein on her unruly emotions. She just couldn't take that familiar, intense feeling, like she was flying whenever she looked into those deep, grey eyes…

_Get a hold of yourself, Arwen!_ She mentally chastised herself.

She looked at him again, this time not trying to hide the heap of mixed emotions, the depth of the different feeling, that assailed her mind at a mile a minute.

He held out his arms for her and she fell into them, tears running down her face with renewed force, all the while sobbing, "I can't, I can't, I can't..."

"You can't what?" he asked in a soft voice, stroking back her hair in a comforting gesture, which was somewhat out of character for him.

He held her tightly and Arwen didn't want him to let go, but should she tell him? She couldn't, never ever could she tell him who she really is. She could say that she was the child of the wicked. She couldn't say that her mother may still be alive.


	16. Chapter 16

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillItryillneverknow, greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

Sorry, no real drama in chapter 15 but I promise there will be some nice twists and turns starting chapter 16.

**Chapter 15**

The next time Arwen and Taye saw each other Arwen was calm and collected.

It was like nothing had happened the evening before. Her grandmother had forced her to wear another of those frilly dresses so now she was clad in a full-length green gown with matching white gloves.

"Arwen, is everything alright?" he asked, concern in his voice as he stopped her.

"Yes."

"Yesterday-" he started.

"Yesterday was yesterday. Let us forget what had happened," she interrupted him.

"But Arwen-" he tried again.

"Please Taye, I don't want to remember yesterday."

"You ran away from dinner and broke down crying in my arms. You looked like you saw a ghost or something. Something is really wrong with you. I can feel it. Let me be there for you. Let me help you."

Arwen didn't want to argue with him. She couldn't tell him the truth. Not now and maybe never. He didn't need to know who she really was. She took the easy way out.

"Well, it's all in the past now. We should just forget about it, don't you think?" It wasn't a question.

Taye opened his mouth to protest but could not think of a suitable argument. He shook his head. There was something about Arwen, he couldn't pinpoint what it was, but she was an enigma to him, one that he intended to solve.

But before he could say or do anything else, Arwen was on her way to the ballroom where Glinda stopped her before she could enter the ballroom.

"Little one, is everything alright?"

"Yes," Arwen answered the same question again.

Her grandparents had already tried talking to her. But even then Arwen had refused to answer. She needed to believe her vision before she could share it with other people. Arwen didn't want to get their hopes up.

"Yesterday you looked like you had seen a ghost."

"Becoming a crown princess overwhelmed me," Arwen lied. She couldn't even tell her aunt that she thought perhaps her mother was still alive. Not until she knew for sure.

During the night she had lain awake thinking about the possibilty. If her mother was still alive where was she? And if her mother was alive maybe her father was alive too? After all, they hadn't found his body. Maybe her mother's spell had worked.

"I remember when we had announced my engagement to your father. Me, Glinda the Good, just two words away from becoming the Queen of the Vinkus. But it was never meant to be. You, Arwen, on the other hand are going to be the Queen and we have to start looking for a proper husband. Maybe young Taye Notaro. He is a wealthy young man and his father is the Duke. You could reunite OZ with your marriage. I am going to name you my sucessor, too. And-"

"Aunt Glinda, please, let me decide for myself if I want to marry him."

"Of course. But you need a husband and when you decide, we can go shopping for a wedding dress. I can already imagine the dress you should wear, cream, or white with a train. Maybe sleeveless? An a-line skirt, I think," Glinda started, imagining Arwen's wedding-dress.

Arwen tried to imagine if her aunt had been the same with her mother. Had her aunt forced her mother to wear silly dresses? She was sure that her aunt had tried to give her mother makeovers too. But before she could give it some more thought, she tried to concentrate on her aunt's next words. Since she had the vision yesterday during dinner Arwen knew that she could force her visions to appear and she didn't need another vision now.

"Look, there is Taye Notaro. He is smitten with you my little one."

Arwen groaned inwardly. This guy wouldn't leave her alone.

"Princess Arwen, a little present," he said.

Arwen took the box from his hands. She gently pulled at the ribbon that was around it, making it fall to the ground. She pulled open the box and her face dropped in surprise. Placed gingerly on the blood red velvet that lined the box was the most beautiful bracelet Arwen had ever seen.

She could tell that the bracelet was very old but it shined like it was brand new. She very carefully picked it up. The silver metal was soft to the touch, as soft as silk. She couldn't quite tell what the bracelet looked like. It looked like a vine that ended at the clasps. But the clasps were very peculiar. They appeared to be halves of something, but what it was she couldn't tell.

Arwen watched in awe, not quite registering what was going on, as Taye took her hand and clipped the bracelet around her wrist. When clasped together, the two ends of the bracelet created a rose, in full bloom. It was beautiful.

She didn't deserve such beautiful presents.

Why would someone give her such beautiful present? She was, after all, only the child of the wicked.


	17. Chapter 17

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillItryillneverknow, greengirl16, Anarra, Happy Loving Heroes **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Life had been hectic the last couple of days for me. I am not sure if I am able to update soon again, but I promise to try and update as soon as possible.**

**Chapter 16**

_She crossed her arms __over her chest in an attempt to look stern. Her companion, however, caught the incessant twitching of her lips and walked over with an open grin before beginning to massage her shoulders, as he usually did once the talk swung to more serious topics._

_She sighed, a blissful look on her face as she enjoyed the free massage. "You're wonderful, do you know that? No one else – oh, right there, please…"_

_"No one else what?" he asked innocently, leaning over and pecking her on the cheek before shifting his hands and massaging her shoulders again._

_Laughing, she glanced out of the window. "I was about to say that no one else can make me feel safe like you do," she said after a moment of silence._

_He glanced at her with a sad, pensive look. Her almost wistful gaze toward the scene outside hit him like a dagger to his heart. He replied in a soft voice, "I'm glad you feel that way, because you need to relax more often."_

_"I do too relax!" she retorted, turning around and glaring at him._

_"Not enough," he murmured, suddenly looking very grim._

_She let out an audible sigh. "There's just…a lot that has to be done in such a short amount of time… I had to find the spell."_

_"But you need to rest, or you won't get anything done at all. You'll just run yourself to the ground. I'm worried about you," he replied, furrowing his brow in concern._

_She smiled weakly in appreciation, but he noticed the somber look in her eyes when she said, "Yero, I can't just sit around and do nothing while everything falls apart. You understand, don't you? I needed to do something and there is still so much to be done."_

_Leaning over, he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "You've done more than your share, my Fae. "_

_Her head leaned against his arm as she let her eyes close for a moment. "Have I really?"_

Arwen woke up, drenched in sweat. She had dreamt about the green woman, her mother, again. Normally when she dreamt about her, her mother was young, but in this dream she had been a lot older with a bit of grey in her hair. Were the dreams about another green woman? Or maybe her mother was alive.

No, she couldn't be. Aunt Glinda had told her that she had witnessed her mother's death. OK, not really seen her die, only listened from another room when her mother melted.

But this dream had been so real, felt so real, like her last vision.

Arwen couldn't hope for it to be true. Her parents could be alive. She assumed that the man was her father, even when he had or should have died years ago nailed to a pole on a cornfield.

Arwen did the only thing she could think of. She ran towards the chapel. This was something she had started doing on a regular basis. It wasn't that she believed in the unnamed God or Kumbrica or someone else, it was more a way to share her thoughts with someone.

"I don't know what I should do. Part of me wants to tell everyone who I really am. All my life the truth about my identity had been a secret. My aunt told people a lie and now, I still can't tell the truth. Would they still accept me as their crown princess if they knew who my mother really was?"

"If they are like me, they will accept you no matter who you are."

Taye had entered the chapel without Arwen noticing. Surprised she turned around and looked at him.

"Taye, why do you associate with me?"

"Associate?"

"Why are you nice to me? Is it because I am the crown princess? No one ever looked twice my way when everyone knewn me as Arwen Upland, the orphan who was raised by Glinda the Good. Now people are nice to me because of my title."

"That's not true. I like you, I really do."

"I am no beauty, I hate wearing frilly dresses. I prefer a quite evening in front of the fireplace with my book to any social event. The only thing that could have others interested in me is my social status."

"Arwen you have to believe me, I like you. I like you the way you are. I would even like you if you were a maid and not the crown princess," Taye persisted, trying to make her believe him.

"If that's true, would you even like me if I were, say, the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West?"

Taye laughed. The Wicked Witch of the West was long gone and dead. She didn't have any children. What a stupid thing of her to say.

"Don't laugh! You don't know anything about my mother! She was a wonderful person. She loved my father and me. And she died for me, like my father died saving us. You all believe what you want to believe, that she was wicked."

"But she was!"

"Never! My mother was a wonderful person. She cared deeply for the ones she loved. She was only misunderstood, never wicked. Madame Morrible and the Wizard only told lies about her. She never mutilated the monkeys and she never killed anyone. My mother wanted to save the Ozians, free the animals and by doing so, by working against the dictator, yes our Wonderful Wizard was a dictator, she became his enemy. The enemy of Oz."

"I can't believe you!"

"Then don't! Let me be. Go and hide behind the lies. Believe the lies and forget about me!"Those horribly beautiful eyes that belonged to Arwen were flashing with fury and pain.

Tay wanted to make them shut. And he did, with a simple kiss, not more then a peck on the lips.

Before either had the ability to comprehend their actions, they found their lips pressed against the other's again. She had let go of his wrist and had placed her hand on his chest, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling him closer. His hands were preoccupied too; one placed on her back, the other had woven its fingers through her hair possessively. Everything they had held back these past months rest in this kiss. It showed as it grew more passionate with every passing moment.

Taye pushed her back against the wall, which only deepened the kiss as she parted her lips to gasp, allowing him in. Arwen thought her heart would leap out of her chest it was pounding so hard, or perhaps die of electrocution as bolts of lightening flashed through her body, leaving her mind paralyzed. As much as he thought he should, Taye couldn't let go of her.

Arwen finally pulled back, gasping for breath and staring at him with wide eyes full of fear as she realized exactly what had just taken place, how much she had just let herself lose control. And it scared her.

"I…have to go," she whispered fast, letting go of him and escaping his grasp.

She flung the door open and ran out of the room, fighting back tears.

Taye had turned to watch her go. He finally leaned with his back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling, breathing hard and feeling defeated.

What had he done?


	18. Chapter 18

**AN:**

I want to apologize for not updating but real life is keeping us, meaning my betareader and myself, more then busy right now.

My neighbour floated my flat a couple of months ago and finally, last Wednesday, I got a new carpet after living with the wet one for so long. A new couch, since I am still sitting on the floor, will be delivered next Saturday. I am still more then busy in refurnishing my flat and the furniture that was destroyed.

And I have a doctor's appointment in the near future, problems with my wisdom teeth, wish me luck that they won't have to remove the wisdom teeth.

I promise to post the next few chapters, which are already written but not betaread as soon as I get them back and I plan to finish FINDING HER WICKED ROOTS as soon as possible, hopefully still this month and there will be another fanfic when I am finished with this one.


	19. Chapter 19

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, musicfan1207, LadyRynofSunnydale,** **TillItryillneverknow, greengirl16, Anarra, Happy Loving Heroes **and **Juelz Rox**.

Again I am very sorry for not updating in two months – but now I am going to update on a more regular basis and for all my faithful reviewers there will be a little Christmas-ff, I start posting on the 24th. Look out for** A LURLINEMAS TO REMEMBER.**

**Chapter 17**

After she left him in the chapel, Taye went back to his room. He couldn't go back to sleep due to the thoughts that were floating through his mind. Arwen's reaction to their kiss had surprised him. Her words had too.

She had told him that her mother was the Wicked Witch of the West.

Taye hadn't believed her at first, but maybe she had told him the truth. He knew that she had been to Kiamo Ko around the time when there had been sightings of someone flying through the night sky. Maybe it had been Arwen and not the Wicked Witch flying around out there. Maybe Arwen had inherited her mother's magical power. Maybe she had even inherited her wickedness?

He decided to ask her. Not now, but the next time he saw her he would ask her about the extent of her power.

But when he saw her again the next morning for breakfast he first looked for any resemblance to the Witch before asking her.

This time, Arwen wasn't wearing a fancy dress. She wore a simple black dress, more of a frock then a dress, black stockings and a pair of ruby slippers. Taye remembered what he had heard once about ruby slippers. A pair of those shoes had belonged to the Governess of Munchkinland, the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West. Perhaps she was Arwen's aunt?

But how could you determine what wickedness looked like? Should he wait for a mad cackle? Or for when she would mount a broom? He didn't know. Maybe he should ask her. But would she answer his questions, especially after their last encounter?

There was only one way to find out.

"Arwen, you look a little under the weather," her grandmother said.

"I didn't slept well last night," she replied softly.

"You shouldn't spend so much time inside. Sometimes you are like your mother, always hiding in the library or behind a book," Glinda reprimanded lightly.

"Maybe you should accompany me on a walk in the garden?" Taye suggested. It was his chance to talk to Arwen alone.

Arwen sighed before nodding her head and following him outside.

When they reached the outdoors, they walked in silence for a while until Taye started to talk, "I want to apologize for my reaction. I have judged a woman I've never met. I am sorry."

"Thank you," Arwen mumbled gratefully. Taye smiled at the progress he was making.

"How about you tell me the truth about your mother?" Taye asked her.

"Why?" she asked, confusion prevalent in her tone.

Taye wanted to answer with a simple _'Because,_' but then he decided against this answer. Why did he want to know more about Arwen's mother? Was it because he was interested in Arwen? Taye liked her. He cared for her and the kiss yesterday had been more then welcome.

"I want to get to know you better and by telling me about your mother, I learn something about you. Our parents define who we are," he finally answered.

"There is something, a memory, the earliest I have about her. I was only a couple of weeks old-"

"How can you remember? She died when you were a baby. You told me so."

"I have visions, like the one I had during dinner or on our train ride."

"You mean you relive her life?"

"Yes."

"Wicked."

"Taye, don't say that. Sometimes those visions are a burden. I don't only relive the happy memories of her life."

"This memory, is it a happy one?" he asked curiously, all the while wondering why she had chosen to open up and if she had ever told anyone else what she was about to tell him.

Arwen nodded before she started talking:

"_The green woman who was known throughout Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West stood in front of the window at Kiamo Ko, cradling a babygirl in her arms, swaying back and forth. T__he baby was sleeping now, but soon she would be awake. She could feel her small heart beating against her chest. The child was everything she had left of him. A small tear tracked down her cheek. This wasn't how they'd planned their future that night in the forest: their only time together. Fiyero should be with them too. He deserved to be here._

_It hurt her deep inside knowing that he was gone forever, but looking at their daughter in her arms took her breath away. Fiyero wasn't gone completely; he had left a little part of him behind for her, to keep her sane, to remind her that someone had loved her. Fiyero had seen behind the façade. He had realized that behind the green skin she was a woman with feelings, someone who was hurt so many times in her life that she had stopped counting long ago._

_Elphaba wanted to hold her baby girl in her arms forever and pretend that everything was right in Oz._

_Holding their child numbed the pain of her loss, while making it sharper all at once. Holding Arwen made her realize that her life would soon end too. Elphaba would never get her happily-ever-after. Her prince was already dead and she would be soon too._

'_I'll save you,' she whispered. 'Mommy's still here.'"_

Taye wasn't an emotional person. He didn't start crying over silly things, but Arwen's memory had touched him. People had always seen the Witch and never the woman that was the Witch.

"Did she die saving you?" he asked.

"Kind of. My aunt Glinda had told me that the witch-hunters were on their way to Kiamo Ko. They had intended to kill my mother but no one knew about my existence. No one knew that my mother had given birth. She had planned to send one of her faithful monkeys with me to my grandparents. She wanted to keep me safe. But in the end she left me with her best friend, my aunt Glinda. We were in the next room, hiding while the melting occured."

"Did you know from the beginning that your parents were the crown prince and the Witch?" Taye was curious. He needed to know more about her.

"Don't call my mother the Witch," Arwen insisted without missing a beat.

"I am sorry."

"Sometimes I want to tell everyone the truth. I hate lying about my identity. Yes, I am Arwen Tiggular, crown princess of the Vinkus, but I am her daughter too. I hate that the identity of my mother is a secret."

"It has to stay that way. If anyone ever finds out who you are, you are in real danger. You are the daughter of the Witch," he said, his voice laced with concern for what would happen to her if they found out who she was, especially now when there had been sightings of the Witch.

"I know. It's just that I have always known that I am an orphan. I've always known that my parents died when I was a baby. My aunt told me wonderful stories about them. They were a little like fairytales. But when I was 19 years old, the day before I graduated from Shiz, she finally told me their names. At first it was like the fairytales from my childhood had been turned into a nightmare."

"You believed those lies too?"

"I didn't know what I should believe at first. My aunt had said I shouldn't listen to all those stories about my parents, so I didn't. Then a while ago I decided I wanted to know the truth. I have my mother's diaries and my visions, nothing else. I needed to see it. That's when I set off travelling and met you."

"If you ever had the chance to meet them, just once, what would you ask them?" Taye asked suddenly. It was a silly, perhaps even ludicrous question and he knew she probably wouldn't have an answer, but he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"I don't know. What would I ask my mother if I would ever have the chance to see her again? Maybe why I had to grow up without my parents or why I never knew the whole truth until I started searching for answers? And as for my father, I learned a lot of things about my mother through her diaries and the visions, but I would like to ask him about his love for my mother. Why did he fell in love with her? What made him love her? When he fell in love with her?" Arwen answered.

"If she was anything like you, the answer would be an easy one."

Arwen blushed. It gave Taye hope that perhaps he was chiselling his way into her heart. That maybe now she would have a reason to feel comfortable around him other than the gut feeling that clearly propelled her actions in their current conversation.

"Taye, thanks for all of this, for being here for me," she said simply, and because she felt daring, leaned up to kiss him on the cheek.

Taye, however, had other ideas. His eyes widened as she tilted towards him, but regained his bearing quickly, and just before her lips touched his cheek, he turned his head, so they met his own lips.

The world seemed to freeze for a second before Arwen, blushing furiously, broke away. She started to stammer an apology but Taye put his finger on her lips.

"Hush. There's nothing to apologize for. If I didn't want to kiss you, I wouldn't have turned my head," he said gently.

"But-" she began, but once again he cut her off.

"Don't try to argue with me," he insisted.

Almost without thinking about it, he let his lips brush her cheek and felt, rather than saw her smile. He sighed and lean his head against hers.

This was happiness and he hoped she felt the same way.


	20. Chapter 20

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillItryillneverknow, greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 18**

The moon was only a quarter full but it still gave off a silver glow. Midsummer was a magical night, a night thought to be the time of the year when magic was strongest.

Because this time of year was so magical, people believed that mid-summer plants had miraculous healing powers and therefore they picked them on this night. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southwards again.

There would have been a celebration at the bonfire at Erised Emoh too, if the crown princess wasn't hovering near death. Now the fire burned low in the garden.

Thousands of little stars covered that inky black sky that night. They all could be seen, tiny, but perfect shades of blue, gold, silver, and red. They didn't give off much light, but they made the night seem all the more magical.

Very near to midnight, nearly all the occupants of the castle, except for the one's staying at Arwen's bedside or praying in the chapel, settled into snug, warm beds, as a wolf howled in the forest and the moon reached its highest point. It was then that one of those thousands of stars in the sky began to shine even brighter. Then, it seemed to descend.

Suddenly, a broom landed in the middle of the yard. The green woman and her husband dismounted the broom.

"We must hurry."

She ran as fast as she could towards the stairs that would lead her inside, the broom forgotten in the grass. Shaking his head, her husband picked up the broom and followed his wife. She hadn't told him why they had to travel to Erised Emoh after all those years.

His wife had been pacing the whole day, feeling restless and lost in her thoughts. It was very abrupt when she suddenly grabbed her broom and said that they must hurry before it was too late. She had given him no other explanation, but he had followed her nevertheless, as he would always and forever would.

To say that everyone was shocked when the Wicked Witch of the West entered Erised Emoh was the understatement of the year, but Elphaba didn't care. All she cared about was her daughter.

"Where is Arwen?" she asked a maid, who stood quivering in the hall.

"Upstairs."

Without waiting for her husband, Elphaba ran upstairs. And as the maid saw the man with the broom who followed the Witch, the last thing she thought before she blacked out from shock was: _The prince is dead, he can't be here._

"Fae, wait for me," her husband, Fiyero Tiggular, called after her.

But she didn't stop, not until she was in the room upstairs where her daughter lay.

"Finally," Fiyero said as he reached her.

But when he looked past her into the room, he knew why she had stopped. His parents, Glinda and three other people he had never met, were gathered around a bed in which a young girl lay: a young girl who looked like Elphaba, except for the skin.

Liora Tiggular was the first to recover her ability to speak.

"Fiyero?"

"Yes, mother it's me."

Normally, it would have been a happy reunion if the circumstances had been different. Elphaba walked towards the bed. Now, as she walked out of the shadow everyone in the room could clearly see that the woman was green. Green as sin. Green as the Wicked Witch of the West.

The reactions of the occupants in the room were all very different.

Laird Notaro was about to reach for the sword, which he normally carried around at all times, only to realize that he had left it in his room.

Glinda fainted as she realized that she was seeing her best friend: her dead best friend.

And Taye simply stood up from where he was sitting at Arwen's bedside and offered his seat to Elphaba, Arwen's mother.

"What happened?" Elphaba asked as she took her glace off her daughter to pose the question to the room.

"She fell," King Sahar answered.

"Fell?"

"From her broom," Queen Liora, who was happy to have her son back yet devastated by the potential loss of her grandaughter, answered.

Fiyero walked towards his wife and daughter.

"She is the Wicked Witch of the West and he should be dead," Laird Notaro exclaimed, pointing first at Elphaba and then at Fiyero.

Glinda who had woken up by now looked at her supposed to be dead friends and then at Laird Notaro.

"Am I seeing a pair of ghosts or are Elphie and Fiyero still alive?"

Elphaba tore her gaze away from her child and looked at Laird.

"Ok, let's get it over with. Yes, I am the Wicked Witch of the West. No, I am not dead and neither is Fiyero. Yes, I know that I am supposed to be evil and that Dorothy Gale dropped a bucket of water over me, intending to melt me. But tell me, have you ever heard about anyone being allergic to water?"

"You mean, you didn't die?" Glinda asked, surprised.

"Aside from catching a cold after spending hours in my drenched dress, nothing happened to me."

"And Fiyero?" Glinda still couldn't comprehend the fact that her former fiancé, whom she had seen die, was standing in the room.

"Remember Glinda, I am a witch. There is a spell for nearly anything."

"If there is a spell for anything, can you save Arwen?" Taye asked, hope shinning in his eyes.

Elphaba looked again at her daughter who lay pale and lifeless in her bed.

"Tell me, what had happened? How come my daughter fell from the broom?" Elphaba asked.

"It's my fault. I have asked her if I could watch the next time she went flying. Arwen had said no. She told me that it was a private matter and that flying gave her the chance to feel a connection with her mother, with you-" Taye stopped and wiped the tears that had gathered in his eyes away before he continued, "but I couldn't stay away."

_When he reached the stairs leading towards the garden he could already see her. She wasn't that high up in the air, circling around the trees as opposed to flying through the western sky, as it had been a trademark of her mother._

_Taye watched in awe as she dipped the broom lower only to pull it up again before she would hit the ground. Here, under the cover of the night sky with no one around, Arwen was free to feel. She was able to defy gravity._

"_Awesome," Taye mumbled._

_He hadn't known that he would get to see something this beautiful. _

"_Arwen, watch out," he called out suddenly as she flew towards a tree. He had been sure that she wouldn't be able to pull up her broom fast enough. He had to warn her._

_But now, as he watched helplessly while she steered her broom into the tree, he realized that his words had broken her concentration. He realized that he was responsible for the collision. _

_Hitting the tree__ smacked the wind out of her. Arwen's head snapped back and from the force of impact, causing her to black out. Once she lost consciousness, her grip on the broom slackened, causing her to fall at least a dozen feet to the ground._

_Helplessly, Taye watched Arwen fall, despair in his chest. He could just barely remember running forward to try and help her, all the while shouting as loud as he could for help._

"I am sorry," Taye repeated again after he had finished telling how it came to be that Arwen was now lying, more dead then alive, in the bed.

Elphaba grabbed Fiyero's hand, which rested on her shoulder, for support, before she asked the question. She already anticipated the answer.

"What did the doctor's say? She is going to be all right, isn't she? She is not going to die."

Sahar shook his head. There was no way of saying the words. He couldn't. He had his son back and would lose his granddaughter.

Almost immediately, Elphaba was in Fiyero's arms sobbing.

"Elphaba, Fae… don't-" Fiyero began.

"Don't tell me not to. She is our daughter and she is going to die," Elphaba said sharply before she buried her head in his chest.

Arwen, the child of the Wicked, was going to die.


	21. Chapter 21

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, RonWeaslyismiking, LadyRynofSunnydale,**** greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 19**

Under other circumstances, Glinda, Sahar and Liora Tiggular would have been happy to see Elphaba and Fiyero again. But now, with Arwen on her deathbed, there wasn't the time to be happy.

Elphaba hadn't left Arwen's bedside since they had arrived four hours ago. She was too busy praying to every named and unnamed God and Goddess to save her only child and take her instead.

Fiyero stood together with his father in the doorway of Arwen's room and watched his wife.

"It hurt Elphaba deeply that she had to leave our daughter behind, but we had no choice and now when we finally have the chance to see her again, she is more dead then alive."

"I should say that we, your mother and I, are happy to have you back. But given the circumstances-"

"I know," Fiyero sighed.

It pained him to see his wife like this. Elphaba had suffered enough in her life and now she was losing her only daughter, their child. Fiyero never had the chance to get to know Arwen, but he remembered what Elphaba had told him about their child. He also remembered the promise he had once made. A promise he couldn't keep.

_Elphaba and Fiyero had finally found a place where they could stay for longer then a couple of days. The constant moving and hiding had taken a toll on both, but for Elphaba, leaving her child behind without a sure chance to ever hold her in her arms again, it was unbearable._

_When Fiyero woke up at night and discovered that he was alone again, he knew immediately were his wife was: outside, watching the stars. And he was right._

"_You thinking about Arwen again, aren't you?" he asked as he approached her._

"_Every second of the day. It hurts, Yero. It hurts thinking about her and not knowing if I'll ever get the chance to see her again."_

_Fiyero took his wife in his arms._

"_See the stars up there?" Elphaba asked._

"_Yes."_

"_Arwen see the same stars. And now, as I'm sitting here, gazing at the stars, I feel like I am near her. It's as if she isn't far away, in the Emerald City, but next to me. I hope that she never forgets me."_

"_She is safe where she is now. I am sure Glinda will tell her all the wonderful stories about us. Maybe she tells her about your dance at the Ozdust."_

_The memory of this day brought a smile to Elphaba's face._

Fiyero entered the room and walked towards his wife.

"Fae, you should get some sleep."

"I want to be here when she wakes up."

Fiyero knew that the chances of Arwen ever waking up were slim. And even if she did wake up, it would only be long enough to say goodbye. If some kind of miracle didn't take place soon, his daughter would die because of her internal injuries.

"Please, Fae, get some rest. If not for me, then do it for Arwen. You could sleep in the armchair by the fire and I will stay here by Arwen's side."

"If I fall asleep and she wakes up, you have to promise me that you will wake me."

"Promise."

Reluctantly, Elphaba stood up from her place by her daughter's side. Fiyero followed his wife over to the fireplace, where he gently guided her to an armchair. After he had made sure that she was comfortable, Fiyero returned to his daughter's side. She looked fragile as she lay there in the bed.

She reminded him a lot of the woman who sat not far away from him. Except for the skin, Arwen was the spitting image of her mother.

Fiyero started talking to his daughter in a low voice, telling her about the things he had always wanted to tell her. "I met your mother when we had been students at Shiz. She was an outcast. People hated her. They shunned her for her skin colour. I wasn't better then them though. I was like them too until I saw past the green of her skin. I learned that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. And to me, your mother is the most beautiful woman I've ever met, even thought she sometimes doesn't believe me. Arwen, I hope you wake up, just once, so your mother has a chance to say goodbye to you. She deserves the chance to say goodbye."

His beautiful Fae, who had been hurt endless times in her life, who had finally gotten the happiness she deserved when they had admitted their feelings for each other, was about to loose their only child.

That was when Fiyero started to get lost in thoughts of what once had been.

_Elphaba was silent for a moment. He could tell she was wondering if he would understand. He knew people had always hurt her one way or another: her father, Avaric, Nessa, Madame Morrible. Why should he be any different? _

_It was almost as if he could see the millions of thoughts and memories that were running through her head._

"_I never met anyone who loved the real me," Elphaba finally said._

"_Fae, I-" he started but stopped before he could continue, he was unsure what to say._

_Elphaba's life was a mess. As far as Fiyero could tell, it had all gone wrong. She wanted a perfect life, someone who loved her for who she was, fighting for Animal rights, just like any woman deserved, and now she had nothing. Now even Fiyero didn't know what to say._

"_Elphaba, I am not like any other man. I care a lot about you. You are the most important person to me. My feelings for you run so deep. So deep that I love you," he told her. He was sure she thought he didn't mean it, so he did the only thing he could do: he pulled her into a deep embrace. When he released her, he leaned down and kissed her for all she was worth. Not a trifling little kiss, but a deep one, full of passion and desire. _

_Elphaba smiled at him. "I love you too."_

A sound interrupted his train of thoughts. At first he thought that some kind of miracle had happened and his daughter was awake. But then he registered the sound. It was someone was crying. It took him only a few seconds to realize that Elphaba was still awake where he had left her, in the armchair with a blanket thrown over her body.

He quietly stood up and walked towards her. She lay there, crying and shaking violently. And he didn't have a clue as to what he could possibly do. There were no words to ease her pain.

"Elphaba," he whispered, "Fae, please…"

"Just leave me alone," she sobbed, her face hidden beneath her hands.

He hesitated for a minute before reaching out and tentatively touching her arm. She didn't seem to notice. His hand moved further upwards, until it was resting on her shoulder.

"Fae," he whispered again, "please."

"What do you want me to do?" she snapped. "Go ahead and pretend nothing has happened? That is my baby girl in the bed, dying. I made a promise to protect her, to keep her safe. I failed her, Yero. I failed our daughter and broke my promise. I couldn't keep her safe."

He had never seen her this way.

"I know," he said very softly. "But I can't stand seeing you cry your eyes out."

"Oh Fiyero –" she broke into tears again, and before he could do anything to stop her, she slipped off the chair, onto the floor next to him, and threw her arms around him. He stroked her back while she cried. After a short while, she withdrew from him and looked at him with wet eyes.


	22. Chapter 22

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, ****greengirl16 **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 20**

They stayed there for a while, simply gazing at each other, communicating without words until the door opened and Glinda entered the room.

"How is she?" was her first question.

"Neither better nor worse," Fiyero answered.

"If only there was a way or a spell or something to save her. We need some miracle like the one that saved the two of you."

Glinda didn't know that her words would give Elphaba an idea to save her daughter. There would be a miracle like the one that had saved Fiyero. Fiyero Tiggular had been saved from death by a spell, why shouldn't the same spell safe his child?

"I know how to save Arwen."

"How?" Fiyero looked at his wife.

"The same spell I used to turn you into a scarecrow."

"Scarecrow? Do you mean that you turned Fiyero into a scarecrow?" Glinda asked in disbelief.

"Yes, for years I was a scarecrow."

"The one who accompanied Dorothy?" Glinda asked, but already sensing the answer.

"Yes. But Fae, you can't do it. I know you want to do good but turning our daughter in a scarecrow. Please no."

"But I turned you back. You are no longer a scarecrow and I can turn her into a human again. I know I can. I did it once, why not again?"

"Spare her the fate of being a scarecrow," he pleaded with her.

"And let her die?"

Fiyero knew that his wife only had the best interest of their daughter in mind. He would sacrifice his life to save Arwen as he had already sacrificed his life once to save Elphaba all those years ago when she had been got caught in a trap the day her sister Nessarose had been crushed by a flying house. Only her spell had saved him.

To find the counter spell had taken too long: he had been a scarecrow for 12 years. Performing the spell had drained nearly all of Elphaba's energy. She had been ill, hovering near death for a while too. Now, if she repeated it, he wasn't sure if she would live through it.

One of them might die in the end. Either Arwen, if Elphaba didn't try to save her, or Elphaba, who wasn't as young and healthy as she once was.

"You know, that you nearly died the last time," he reminded her, voicing his objection out loud.

"I would give my life to save Arwen."

"You know I would too but we don't know if this spell will work a second time. Are you willing to sacrifice your life only to realize that it was of no use? Knowing that both of you might die in the end? I can't live without both of you but when you make me choose between our daughter and you… Fae, I am sorry, I have lived without having our child in my life all those years, but I can't live my life without you."

Elphaba glared angrily at her husband before she walked away from Fiyero and Glinda back to Arwen's bedside.

"Do you know what you have asked of your wife?" Glinda asked Fiyero.

Fiyero nodded. He knew it. He knew that he had asked his wife to stand back and watch their child die. Yes, someone could call him selfish. But he knew that those powerful spells could kill his wife, too. He never wanted to lose her.

He looked over to his wife, who was again at Arwen's bedside.

"And what if I perform the spells?" Glinda asked.

"You? Glinda, you can't even turn a frock in a ball gown. How are you going to turn my child in a scarecrow and back human again?" Elphaba asked.

"Teach me how."

"Before you are able to do it, she will be dead."


	23. Chapter 23

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, ****greengirl16, Wicked'elphaba-fiyero **and **Juelz Rox**.

**Chapter 21**

Two hours later, Fiyero finally had the chance to apologize for his words.

"Fae."

"Leave me alone."

"Not until you listen to me."

"You have said enough already."

Yes, Elphaba was more than angry. She was furious. How dare he to suggest that she let her daughter die? It was her fault that Arwen was so close to death. If Elphaba had never fallen in love with Fiyero and never given birth to Arwen, then they wouldn't be here. She, the Wicked Witch of the West, had only brought pain to those she loved. It would have been for the best if the midwife had drowned Elphaba the day she had been born.

"I know that my words were brainless. But let me explain, please."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because you know I am right. You know I only have your best interests in mind. And most of all, you know I love you."

Elphaba laughed a hollow laugh. He loved her? Yes, he must. They had stayed together for 23 years and had been faithful towards each other, but was this love? Elphaba had never really been loved, not until he had walked into her life. Not until the day he had left his fiancé for her.

Fiyero walked towards his wife and took her in his arms.

"Don't doubt that you are worth being loved and don't you ever doubt my love for you."

"But Fiyero, what about Arwen? I can't stand back and watch while my baby dies. I have to do something, Yero, We have to safe her."

"We will find a way to save her."

"Promise?"

"Yes," he lied; already knowing that only a miracle or a spell could save Arwen.

"I hate seeing her like this. It should be me laying there, dying, not our daughter. She has her whole life ahead of her, but me, I am only the Wicked Witch of the West. I can die, no one would miss me."

"I would," Fiyero replied passionately. "Fae, I love you. Remember the day we exchanged our vows?"

Elphaba nodded. Being fugitives hadn't allowed them to have a real wedding, but Fiyero had insisted on exchanging wedding vows.

_By nightfall, Elphaba and Fiyero stood on the top of a hill with only the moonlight illuminating the two of them and the Animals that were their witnesses. They wanted to exchange their wedding vows. Not that they really needed a ceremony, they were husband and wife in every sense already, but Fiyero had wanted her to give her some kind of wedding. Maybe not the fairytale wedding every girl dreamt about, but something close to those little-girl-dreams._

_He was still a scarecrow and maybe would be for the rest of his life. He might never be able to give her a wedding night but he still wanted to go through with the wedding. Elphaba deserved some kind of proof that he loved her, even though she had turned him into a scarecrow. She still didn't believe him that he had no problems being a scarecrow and had started searching for spells to turn him back._

_Now, as the moon shone down on the two lovers he grabbed her hands in his and turned towards her._

"_Love has given us wings. Our journey begins today, Elphaba Thropp, wherever the wind may carry me, I will stay by your side as your husband. Today, I join my life to yours, not merely as your husband, but as your friend, your lover, and your confidant. Let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion you turn to. With you I will walk on our path from this day forward. I swear by every named and unnamed God and Goddess out there, that I will love you, as you deserve to be loved. That I will treat you as my equal, my life, the other half of my heart and soul. I promise to you that I stay by your side until death does us apart. I take you Elphaba Thropp to be my wife."_

_Tears had gathered in Elphaba's eyes and she had to take a deep breath before she was able to say her vow. She had never anticipated that Fiyero would say such beautiful words. She didn't deserve them, not those beautiful words or his love._

"_Fiyero Tiggular, you have filled my world with meaning. You have made me so happy and more fulfilled as a person. Thank you for taking me as I am. Thank you for loving me, and welcoming me into your heart. I promise to always love you, respect you as an individual, and to be faithful to you forever. Today I choose you to be my partner, and commit myself to you for the rest of my life."_

She had always longed for someone who would love her and Fiyero was the one. Elphaba had wanted the same love she had received for her daughter, as well. Young Taye Notaro, who had sat at Arwen's bedside as they arrived had seemed like the right person to make her little girl happy. And now, she would be denied any chance to be happy, to be loved by a young man.

And as if on cue, said young man opened the door to Arwen's room.

"Can I have a moment with her?" he asked hopefully.

Elphaba looked at her child. She wanted to stay with her. She longed to be there in case Arwen woke up but she knew that he should have his moment with her too.

"We will be outside. If anything happens, let us know."

Taye nodded. Elphaba hoped that if he had to call them back inside, it would be with the news that Arwen had woken up. She prayed that it would not be the worst-case scenario of her having died without her mother there.


	24. Chapter 24

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Anarra, TillItryIllneverknow, Juelz Rox **and** greengirl16.**

**Chapter 22**

When the door closed behind Arwen's parents, Taye walked over towards the bed. Carefully he sat down at her bedside, taking a moment to really look at her. Her ebony hair was fanned out on the pillow, the only contrast to the whiteness of Arwen's skin. It seemed that she had lost all colour in her complexion and her lips were a pale, bluish-gray colour.

"You may never wake up again, but there are some things I have to tell you before you die. First of I have to apologize, Arwen. If you die, it is my fault. I know that I should have stayed inside, but I was curious. I wanted to watch you fly. If I hadn't followed you outside, if I hadn't shouted and broke you concentration, you wouldn't be laying her, dying. It is my fault and I would do anything to undo what I have done to you. And most of all, I'm sorry you'll never get to meet your parents. They are here, they are alive. You should have the chance to see them, to meet them, Arwen, but because of my foolishness, I may have robbed you of any chance to get to know your parents."

Tears gathered in his eyes. She was going to die and it was his fault. Taye would give anything to give her the chance to see her parents, even just once. He would die for her. He would die instead of her, if it were possible.

Taye took her near lifeless hand in his before he continued. There were still a lot of words to be said, conversations to be had, and if Arwen died, he would never get the chance to tell her. He would never be able to tell her he had fallen in love with her.

Months ago, he would have brushed off whoever would suggest that he would be in love with the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West. Hell, even a week ago he believed the Wicked Witch of the West to be the greatest enemy of Oz, not the mother of the woman he had fallen in love with.

And now, because he had been selfish and had wanted to watch her every waking moment, he was going to lose her forever. Wasn't there a spell to save her? Wasn't there a spell for everything? Her mother was a witch, the Wicked Witch of the West, why couldn't she save Arwen with a spell?

"Oh Arwen, I wish we would have had more time together. I would have hoped for a happily-ever-after together with you. But it seems that life will deny us any chance for happiness."

He just couldn't continue. He couldn't say all those words he wanted to say. It was pointless. Arwen was going to die. He was going to lose the woman he loved before he ever had the chance to show her how much he loved her.

At first, he had only been interested in her because she was the crown princess but as the days went by, he realized that the spark he had felt when he met her on the train, on a day that she had only seemed like an ordinary girl, one he wouldn't look twice at, had allowed her to capture his heart. It was more than just an attraction he felt towards her. For the first time in his life, Taye was deeply in love. And fate was about to take away his chance to love her.

Maybe she wouldn't live past this evening. Arwen was hovering near death. He only prayed that she wouldn't feel any pain.

As he looked closely at Arwen he realized that something had changed.

Shocked he stood up. He had to get her parents. They needed to be here. They needed to be with her now.


	25. Chapter 25

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, LadyRynofSunnydale, Juelz Rox **and** greengirl16.**

There will be only 2 more chapters and an epilogue but I am already writing the sequel to Fairytale gone bad.

**Chapter 23**

While Taye was inside Arwen's bedroom talking to her, the people waiting in the hallway-Elphaba, Fiyero, Glinda, King Sahar, Queen Liora, Taye's parents and various servants-had a moment to compose themselves. No one was afraid of Elphaba being there. Yes, she was the most feared person throughout OZ, but most people in the Vinkus hadn't believed the nonsense the Wizard and Madame Morrible had been spreading about her anyway.

Finally they had a moment together and they-Glinda, Sahar and Liora-could finally ask the questions they had wanted to ask since Elphaba and Fiyero had arrived at Erised Emoh. They all wanted to know how Fiyero and Elphaba were living. They wanted to know where they were hiding and why they were only returning now.

"Why?" Glinda voiced the question out loud.

"What do you mean, Glinda?" Fiyero asked.

"Why are you back? Not that I am not happy to see you again, but both of you were presumed dead for more then 20 years. I watched you dying nailed to the pole, Fiyero. I heard your final scream after Dorothy dosed you with a bucket of water, Elphaba. I mourned my friends for this long and now the two of you suddenly appear."

Fiyero tightened his hold on his wife. What should they say? He didn't even know why they were back. Elphaba had suddenly wanted to return. Of course, he now assumed that she had felt that their daughter needed them. A mother always felt it when her child was in danger. It was a special bond between mother and child.

"I am sorry," Elphaba whispered.

"You should be!" Glinda was getting angry.

Fiyero could understand Glinda's reaction. He would be angry too if the roles were reserved.

"I did the only thing I could to keep everyone safe. What do you think would have happened if the Ozians learned that Glinda the Good was the best friend of the Wicked Witch?"

"I am still your best friend."

"After everything I did? You just said it. We left without giving any hint that we were alive and now, out of the blue we return. Yes, we had our reasons not to come back until now, and believe me, if it weren't for Arwen being near death, I, no, we wouldn't be back. It's still much too dangerous for us to return."

Elphaba leaned her head back, letting it rest against Fiyero's shoulder. She needed to be close to him.

Only in his arms did she feel the safety and love she had always craved. Thankfully, Fiyero was more then willing to give her exactly what she wanted and needed. He would give her the moon if she asked for it.

"Glinda, don't hold the fact that we faked our deaths against us. We did it, because we love you, all of you. We had no other choice. And it was my idea to fake Elphaba's death and leaving everyone behind. Don't you think it didn't pain me to see my wife suffering? There were moments when we longed to be home, to be with the family and friends we left behind. But we were never given the chance to return until now. Believe me, if never returning home would have meant that our daughter would still have the chance to survive, we would gladly stayed hidden until our dying days, but this is not something we can choose. Fate has thrust the pending death of our child upon us and we only have the chance to say goodbye," Fiyero told them.

Everyone in the hallway looked up as the door suddenly swung open and Taye practically ran out of the room. He had been ready to search the whole castle for Arwen's parents and was surprised to find them just outside.

"You have to come now! It's Arwen."

Elphaba took one step backwards, grabbing her husband's hand for support. She knew what this meant. She had the feeling that something was very wrong.

"I can't," she whispered.

Everyone knew that it was time to say goodbye. One by one they entered the room to do just that.


	26. Chapter 26

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **Elizabeth, TillItryIllneverknow, Juelz Rox **and** greengirl16. **I am still hoping for 100 reviews. Maybe I will finally get them. After all only 13 reviews still left until number 100.

There will be 1 more chapter and an epilogue.

**Chapter 2****4**

As the dark continued spreading, an evermore velvety cloak across the grounds, Glinda entered the room.

"I so absoluttify hate saying goodbye," Glinda whispered as she walked over to the bed where Arwen rested.

Her little girl, as she called Arwen sometimes, was going to die. Again Glinda had to say goodbye, like she had done it many years ago with Arwen's mother Elphaba. But Elphaba had returned. The bucket of water hadn't melted the Wicked Witch of the West. Both, Elphaba and Fiyero, had worked together to fake Elphaba's death. There wasn't anything fake about Arwen's death. Her death wasn't something they could fake. The internal injuries would kill her. Arwen only had a couple of hours, maybe less, to live.

One by one they would say their goodbye to the child of the Wicked.

"If only I hadn't told you about your parents. If only I kept their names a secret forever or never given you your mother's diaries. Arwen, it's my fault. I failed your mother. When she asked me to raise you as my own and keep you safe, I made a promise. But by telling you the truth, I broke my promise. Back then, I didn't know that it would kill you, but being the daughter of the Wicked Witch was your death sentence and I added to it by encouraging you to finding your roots."

Glinda bowed her head.

She hoped that one day Elphaba and Fiyero would be able to forgive her. They hadn't said anything. They didn't even know by now that Glinda had encouraged Arwen on her quest. But when they found out, no, when she confessed, they would have plenty to say and she would accept the end of their friendship. Already she felt like falling to her knees and pray for forgiveness from the unseen, omnipotent and omniscient force that reigned over them.

"Arwen, I am going to send your grandparents in. I hope that both your parents or your grandparents can forgive me."

As Glinda turned around, she didn't see Arwen opening her eyes, but she heard the words the young woman whispered: "Don't be sorry."

Glinda whirled around in shock. Arwen was awake!

"You are awake! Arwen, you won't believe me, but your parents are here. They aren't dead! Oh, little one, I can't even tell how happy I am to see you awake!"

"They are here?" Arwen's voice was weak.

"They will be so happy to see you awake. They arrived hours ago, prepared to say goodbye but now that you are awake, everything is going to be well. I am gladified that you aren't going to die. We thought you would, after all you fell from your broom. But that is all forgotten now. I–"

"Aunt Glinda, please," Arwen interrupted her aunt.

"What is it?"

"I have to say goodbye. Can you send them in?"

Glinda gasped in shock. She couldn't mean it, could she? No, Arwen was awake now. She couldn't be dying. Not now. Not after she had woken up and just learned that her parents were back. No!

"Please, I need to see them, if only once before I die," Arwen added softly.

"You can't die. You just woke up," Glinda stubbornly, refusing to accept the fact that Arwen was dying.

As Arwen reached out her hand, her aunt grabbed it, feeling the coldness radiating from her.

"But you can't die. You should have your happily-ever-after. Outside this door is a young man who loves you dearly and your parents who have missed you more then words can express."

"Some people aren't meant to have their happily-ever-after and some of us were only born for a reason, to fulfil some kind of duty. I guess I was only born to discover the truth about my mother, to bring the fact that she was never wicked to light."

Maybe Arwen was right. Glinda gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Maybe you are right. I am going to talk to your parents for a moment and then send them in."

After Glinda left the room, she leaned against the closed door from the outside, taking a deep calming breath. She knew that all eyes were on her. She knew that she had to tell Elphaba and Fiyero that their child was awake and wanted to say goodbye.

"Glinda?" she heard her best friend say her name.

Glinda opened her eyes, which she didn't realize she had closed, and looked towards the couple standing a few feet away. Fiyero had his arms still wrapped tightly around Elphaba, her back pressed against his front, while his head had come down on top of hers.

"Oh Elphie!" Glinda rushed over to her friend, who had stepped out of her husband's safe embrace to gather her crying friend in her arms.

"Glinda, is she dead?" Fiyero dared to utter what he hoped hadn't happen already.

Glinda shook her head in response.

"What is it my sweet? What has you crying?"

"Elphie, I am sorry. I failed you. I broke my promise to you. I couldn't keep Arwen safe and now you only have the chance to say goodbye."

"You raised her. You gave her a life and the possibility to be whoever she wanted to be. Things I couldn't do," Elphaba answered, locking eyes with her husband to gather necessary strength.

Glinda stifled a sob. She should be comforting Elphaba, not the other way round.

"You have to say goodbye. Arwen wants to see the two of you. She is awake," Glinda finally said.

Elphaba instantly let go of Glinda. The usually cheerful woman felt cold alone without her friend holding her, but she knew that Arwen needed them more.

"What if she hates me for leaving her?" Elphaba voiced her thought out loud.

"You did all this because you love her and you have suffered terribly because of it. I know she will understand. I know she will not reject you. Just talk to her and be honest. It is what she would expect."

"I suppose you are right… I am just a little nervous."

And together with the others, Glinda watched the couple enter the room, intending to talk to their child for the first and last time.


	27. Chapter 27

For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to **TillItryIllneverknow, boston blue, Anarra, Happy loving heroes, Juelz Rox **and** greengirl16.**

**Chapter 25 **

Elphaba and Fiyero knew this would be one of the hardest things they would ever have to do. It was even harder than all those years ago when they had left, letting all their friends and family believe that they had died.

Holding hands, they gathered strength from each other they walked towards the bed that Arwen lay in.

"Mom, Dad?" Arwen asked, the words sounding so natural coming from her, as if she had used them all her life and not just today for the first, and maybe only, time in her life.

Elphaba nodded. Leaning over her daughter's bed, she reached out and brushed some hair off of Arwen's forehead, softly talking to her child.

"I had always wanted to keep you safe. I thought that the curse of magic hadn't affected you. My magic is always killing the Thropp woman and for that, I am sorry."

"You mean Aunt Nessa?"

"And my mother." The tears had already started to stream down Elphaba's face, and the gnawing demon that always seemed to sit in her chest was already pushing all the breath out of her. All those horrible, anxious, dreadful thoughts were descending down on her so quickly that it felt like they were stealing the life right out of her.

For the first time Elphaba had admitted out loud that everything that had happened in her life–Nessarose being born unable to walk, her mother dying on childbirth, later Nessarose being crushed by a flying house and now Arwen dying–was her fault.

Fiyero curled his arms around his wife, pulling her close up to his chest, cradling the trembling, sobbing body. He needed to be strong for his wife and his daughter.

"Don't cry, Mommy," Arwen whispered.

Just like any other crying jag or panic attack she'd ever had, her breathing slowly returned to normal, and the tears started to slow. Fiyero always had a calming effect on her.

Squaring her shoulders she turned towards the bed.

"I am sorry."

"Don't."

"I have always imagined how it would be to finally see you again but I would have never imagined that it would be like this, with you dying," Elphaba said.

"I am just glad to see the two of you at least once. But let's not talk about death anymore. There are a lot of things I want to know, a lot of things I always wanted to ask you and now is the only chance I will ever have."

"Then ask whatever you want to know," Elphaba encouraged her daughter.

"Did you love her from the moment you saw her?" Arwen quizzed her father.

He laughed for a moment. "No, at first she thought of me as a git with a dancing-through-life attitude and I only saw an annoying green girl. I was as prejudiced as everyone else in OZ, seeing her green skin as a freakish abnormality."

A strange sad smile passed over Fiyero's face and both women got the distinct impression that he was remembering something that was blissfully sweet and bitterly sad at the same time. And he was. The day he had met her, or more precisely, the first time he saw her, back then in the Ozdust would always be a bittersweet memory for him.

_Fiyero and Galinda were dancing as, suddenly, a loud gasp, possibly more than on, from the students nearby, startled them. Fiyero looked up, towards the stairs. Now he saw what had startled the others: a young woman as green as sin._

"_Who in Oz is this?" he asked in disbelief._

_  
"Elphaba Thropp, my roommate. Please, doesn't stare at her!" Galinda begged.  
_

"_How can you not? She is green, for Ozsake."_

_Fiyero watched this green girl as she took of the hideous black hat she was wearing. He could hear the loud whispers going through the room and he was sure that she heard them too._

_-She must have thought that wearing that hideous hat would make us stop staring at her skin.-_

_-In this light she looks fluorescent.- _

_-Didn't anyone tell her that this isn't the library?- _

_-With her here we will definitely have a good laugh.- _

_-I have never seen a dancing asparagus before.-_

"_Well, at least she doesn't give a twig about what anyone else thinks," he said with admiration in his voice as he watched her place the hat back on her head and start to dance._

_  
"Of course she does, she just pretends not to. I feel awful."  
_

"_Why? It's not like it's your fault."  
_

"Dad?" Arwen's voice interrupted his thoughts.

He had always longed to hear someone call him Dad and now was the only time he would ever hear this word. Fiyero tried to fight against the tears gathering in his eyes. He had to be strong, for Elphaba and for Arwen.

"If you could change your past, would you do anything differently?" she asked of her parents.

Both Tiggulars pondered the question for a moment. If they could go back in time, would they act differently? Would they change anything? Maybe the day Elphaba was off to see the Wizard. Maybe Fiyero should have stopped her from leaving. Maybe he should have stopped her from running to her sister's side after she had been crushed.

"Our decisions made us who we are now. If I had made other choices in my life, maybe you wouldn't be lying here or maybe you would have never been born or maybe I would have been happier with my life without you or your father in it but I think-no, I know that I needed and still need your father, his love and the strength he gives me. I don't regret the decisions I've made," Elphaba told them without hesitation, finally accepting all of her choices for that they were.

She felt her husband give her hand a gentle squeeze.

"I told Aunt Glinda that maybe I was born for a reason, to fulfil a job. I guess my job was telling the truth about the Witch. Mom, I did it for you, I wrote your story down," Arwen said, her voice growing weaker.

"You didn't have too."

"I was born to uncover the truth about you," she insisted.

"You wrote a book about the Wicked Witch?" Fiyero asked for confirmation.

"It's in grandpa's library, I left the script there… My job is done and I can now rest in peace," she added.

All three knew what she meant. In a moment Arwen would take her last breath. There was nothing Elphaba or Fiyero could do to prevent the death of their only child.

"I love you. Never forget it. Never forget how much we love you," Elphaba said with tears in her eyes.

"I feel it is time for me to go. The angels are calling my name."

"Don't give up Arwen. I need you, we need you," Fiyero begged of his daughter, but already knowing that all his begging wouldn't keep his child alive.

"I love you Mom and Dad." She took another shallow breath and closed her eyes.

"We will always love you."

Arwen looked calm and peaceful for the first time in her life. She was dead. She died knowing that her parents were alive and loved her.

Arwen was dead but would never be forgotten. After all she was the child of the Wicked.


	28. Chapter 28

**First I thought about writing an ending similar to the musical RENT and letting Arwen wake up again, but after giving this idea some thought I decided against it. Arwen was born for a reason. She was born to find her roots and tell the story of her parents especially her mother's story. **

**I apologize to everyone who had hoped for a happily-ever-after.**

**And I want to say thank you to all my wonderful reviewers: **Anarra, musicfan1207, LadyRynofSunnydale, Juelz Rox, greengirl16, Happy loving Heroes, HaChosenOne, FaeTiggular, BreathofMidnightAir, Elphiethegood, boston blue, Elizabeth, RonWeaslyismiking, Wicked'elphaba-fiyero and TillItryIllneverknow.

**And to** BelieveTheWarIsOver **for betareading.**

**I am planning a sequel to **FAIRYTALE GONE BAD, **so look out for **NO HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER FOR THE WICKED?.

**The funeral speech of Sahar Tiggular is an old Indian prayer I found online.**

**Epilogue**

Autumn seemed to have come suddenly this year. This morning, the first of September was crisp and golden.

Arwen was buried in the gardens of Erised Emoh. From the windows of the library in the castle one could see her final resting place. Elphaba had enchanted the plot so that there were always flowers blooming there.

At the moment, Fiyero watched his wife as she kneeled in front of the grave. She went to Arwen's final resting place twice every day. Standing at the grave day by day wasn't easy for either of them. It made Fiyero realizes how short and precious life was.

Sahar and Liora Tiggular had asked their son to stay at Erised Emoh together with his wife and the pair had neither declined nor agreed. Fiyero knew that probably they couldn't stay forever but right now he was more worried about Elphaba's well being than the possibility that Witch-hunters could appear at Erised Emoh.

He knew that she felt empty and lonely again. He knew she felt nothing, just the pain of losing their child. In a way, he was happy that his wife felt the pain, that she felt something. This made her understand and made her realize that she was still alive. It showed her that she should and could still go on with her life.

He still remembered the funeral, which had taken place three days after Arwen had died.

_The casket was set on th__e platform above the open grave. Only people who knew the truth about Arwen's parentage were present. _

_He and his father would give the eulogy instead of a priest. Like mother, like daughter, Arwen hadn't believed in God, Lurline, nor any other God or Goddess. _

_King Sahar together with his son and daughter-in-law stepped forward. Elphaba hadn't shed a single tear since she had left Arwen's deathbed. Fiyero just hoped that somehow she would let her grief out. Keeping it all inside wasn't healthy._

"_When I first met Arwen, I didn't want to believe her. I just couldn't believe her. She had appeared from seeming nowhere after years of mourning for our only child but then suddenly we got part of him back. She was his daughter, our granddaughter. It was too good to be true. And while I never thought I would come to believe her, I soon found her words to be truthful after a bit of encouragement by my wife. She believed in her from the moment she saw her. Now I stand in front of her casket, asking myself the famous what-ifs. What if I had had more time with my granddaughter? What if she had been raised here in the Vinkus? What if the accident never happened? To those questions I will never have answers but I am glad, that even for a short time, I had a granddaughter."_

_He stopped for a moment before he continued his eulogy:_

"_Should your blanket be torn,  
May your breezes blow warm,  
May your pleasure be what you find.  
May the burdens you bear  
Like your bounty-be shared  
May you leave something good behind_

May the sky and the land  
Rise to your command  
May your senses come like the night.  
Live in peace with the Earth  
As in death-As in birth  
May you prosper, and have a good life."

_Sahar nodded towards his son before he sat down next to his wife. _

"_I am Fiyero Tiggular and Arwen was my daughter, my daughter I never knew. Many years ago my wife made a decision. My wife chose to give up our daughter so she could have a better life. We have been fugitives, outcasts, the last twenty and more years. Our friend Glinda gave Arwen the chance to be whatever she wanted to be and our little girl made us proud. I only regret that I only met her when she was near death, but I don't care that the time I knew her can be counted in hours. I am proud to call Arwen Liora Tiggular my daughter. _

"_A while ago she went on a journey to discover her roots, her wicked roots as some people would call them. Yes, her mother, my wife is called the Wicked Witch of the West. But the people who mattered most to her never saw Elphaba as the Witch. And our child went on the journey to be able to finally tell the truth about us. Arwen, I want to say thank you for helping people realize that not everything and everyone is what it seems to be. I want to say thank you for being my daughter and loving me even when you never knew me in person until it was too late. I am proud of you and I promise you that one day you will see us again."_

_Fiyero__ kissed his fingertips and then brushed with them over the casket. He walked back to his seat._

_There was silence, the wind howling, and then Glinda and his mother's soft sobbing. _

After the day, they had read the script to the book Arwen wrote about her mother, Fiyero knew that Glinda intended to let them publish the book. It was time for the Ozians to learn the truth about the Wicked Witch of the West. Arwen's death shouldn't be without meaning, she had said herself that her job in Oz was to tell the story of her mother and they, meaning Glinda and himself, would make sure that her job would be completed by publishing the book.

Fiyero wiped the tears that were running down his face away. Her death still hurt but he had to be strong for his wife.

Arwen was dead but would never be gone. She was the Child of the Wicked and, like her mother; she was too remarkable for Oz to forget.


End file.
